All about wheat

Wheat is generally considered to be one of the more profitable crops grown on the farm and fits into the cropping rotation between oilseed rape and malting barley. Wheat is a grass with a very swollen grain that when ground, produces a flour that is particularly suitable for the production of bread and biscuits. It is the world's most important crop.The wheat's that farmers grow today looks similar but have been repeatedly selected for higher yields and better disease resistance. In Roman times wheat could yield three tonnes to each hectare, now eight tonnes is normal. Wheat is a versatile plant that can be sown in either the autumn or the spring, both sowing times being harvested in August. In the UK autumn sowing dominates. This is because the UK's temperate climate allows the plant to grow through the winter and produce a higher yield than a spring sown alternative. In the UK the climate has always been well suited to the production of wheat and as much as 1,000 years before the Romans arrived, farmers were exporting surplus grain to Europe. Today wheat is grown on about 2,000,000 hectares with a value of about £1.2 billion.The UK currently produces around 15 million tonnes of wheat each year and around 25% of this is exported to countries around the world. About 40% of the national crop is used in animal feed rations going to chickens, cows and pigs. The balance of the crop is used for human consumption with wheat being used in literally thousands of products and responsible for the daily production of 10 million loaves of bread. We grow about 220 ha of wheat each year which is approximately a third of our total crop area.

How we start the crop off

After the oilseed rape harvest, the ground is left for 10 days to allow any fallen rape to chit. then a 50 mm deep false seedbed is made using a cultivator.

Two days prior to sowing, any weeds are killed off using a weed killer sprayed onto the leaf .A second cultivator pass is then used to produce a seedbed. Planting starts in mid september and is carried out by the farm's seed drill. The seed is sown at a rate of: 225 seeds/m2 and is usually saved for the previous harvest and the seed is coated with dressing to protect it from soil diseases .Sowing is usually finished by the end of September if the weather is good and we sow about 35 ha per day
After the seed is planted a set of ring rolls then consolidates the soil around the seed.

Fertilizer

Our newly sown wheat plant then needs nutrients to grow. We have to apply Nitrogen, Potash, Potassium, Sulphur, Magnesium and Lime to our crops to supply the plants needs at different times of the year. After harvest the soil is tested for nutrients and each sample of soil is labeled with a GPS reference. This enables a soil map to be formed to tell us the level of each nutrient at a particular place in the field. This information is also sent to us digitally and is used in the tractor to control the rate at which each nutrient is spread onto each part of the field.This enables us to target the product on the areas it is needed and saves wastage. Nitrogen is applied in the spring when the growth of the plant rapidly increases. Unfortunately, it is difficult to test for the nitrogen in the soil, so we use a different technique called satellite imaging to determine the crops needs. A picture of the crop is taken by a passing satellite and the changes in the greenness of the crop is recorded. This information is converted into digital information to be similarly used to control the distribution of the fertilizer across the fields.

Crop protection

As farmers, we have to protect the growing plant from a number of enemies that can cause potential yield losses. As the wheat plant grows, it is always competing with weed for the soils nutrient. These weeds can seriously reduce the amount of wheat we harvest. Selective chemicals are sprayed onto the crop to kill the weeds that germinate with in the crop. Also from early spring up untill a month before harvest, the crop is under attack from fungal disease. These diseases will kill the cells on the wheat plant and severely reduce the crops potential yield, so on some, we have to spray a fungicide to protect the plant from these diseases.

What happens to the harvested crop

Wheat is relatively easy to harvest and this takes place in early to mid-august. As we have chalky light soils on the farm, we are not able to produce quality hard wheat's for bread making.We therefore grow soft wheat (low protein and weak gluten) which are sold for biscuits and other general flour uses. Our wheat crop is either sent to a local mill in Andover or sold for export. This export wheat is transported to Southampton docks via lorry and loaded onto a boat. If the wheat we produce does not reach the standards required by the millers, then it goes for animal feed.We are able to store all the crops we produce on the farm, so we sell our produce when it is most advantageous to do so. The price we receive is constantly changing due to supply,demand and currency.