Albert growers impressed with first Flanker wheat crop

Growing Flanker wheat for the first time last year was a positive experience for the Jarvis family at Albert, with the crop yielding well in a low rainfall season and winning them a local wheat crop competition.

Wayne and Michael Jarvis, along with their parents, John and Stacy, farm “Merndale” and “Glensneath”, west of Dubbo.

Their crop of Flanker was predicted to yield 4.2 tonnes per hectare when judged prior to winning the Tullamore PA&H wheat crop competition on October 19, 2017.

The crop later yielded 2.3t/ha when harvested on November 13.

Michael Jarvis said the wheat produced an excellent result despite very low in-crop rainfall.

“We like the way Flanker grows,” Mr Jarvis said.

“It looked strong in a tough season, where we received just under 130mm of rain.”

Wayne Jarvis said the family had previously grown Gregory – classified as Australian prime hard (APH) – but liked the extra yielding ability and disease resistance offered by APH variety Flanker.

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“The flexibility of Flanker’s wide seeding window is beneficial for us,” he said.

“It is also suited to low seeding rates as it tillers very well, and the plants make the most of our 16-inch row spacings.

“We had seen good results for Flanker from another district grower who trialled it on farm during the 2016 season, so we were eager to try it ourselves.”

The crop was sown on May 1 at a rate of 30kg/ha into a paddock that had grown a substantial crop of field peas in 2016.

They applied MAP fertiliser at 50kg/ha.

Herbicide treatment included 33g/ha of Logran and 500mL/ha of Trifluralin IBS, 700mL/ha of LVE MCPA and 100mL/ha of Lontrel.

Wayne Jarvis said they also trialled Trojan wheat in 2017.

“We thought it was an excellent crop with outstanding growth and standability,” Mr Jarvis said.

“It has lots of potential in a program with Flanker as a mid-late sowing variety.”

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