28 Feb 1986 Double win for couple at ICI wheat competition

North Canterbury husband and wife team Peter and Anne Robinson, of Horrelville, have scored a double in the 85 wheat competition by gaining the highest net return and winning the quality award.

This is the first time since the ICI wheat competition started in 1982 that one competition plot has scored highest in both net return and quality.

Net return from the Robinsons' 0.5-ha plot was $934.66 a hectare for the newly-released Otane red spring wheat sown on August 1.

Their Otane achieved a bread wheat quality index of 101, mainly because of a MDD bake score of 32.

Father-and-son partnership of .Jim and Andrew Brooker, of Aylesbury, gained second place in the competition a net return of $895.33 from their Weka, another newly-released cultivar, sown on May 26.

Bruce Lovett, from Ashburton Forks, gained second place for quality with an index of 101, equal to the Robinsons, but his wheat had to be screened for milling grade and also showed some black point.

Only the Robinsons, of the 10 competitors, sowed in Spring sowed in May.

Irrigation was available to competitors for the first time since the wheat competition was established.

The Robinsons irrigated their wheat four times, and this cost $197.27 ; the Brookers irrigated three times for $187.27.

The winning net return was well below the $1310.75 achieved in ICI Wheat 84.

This is because of the extra cost of irrigation, and wheat levies and transport to landed-shed-door at Addington in ICI Cereal 85.

Transport charges and wheat levies cost the Robinsons $157.62 and the Brookers $142.82.

Those competitors who irrigated had yields from 7.75 tonnes a hectare down to 5.51 tonnes, with the Robinsons achieving 7.21 tonnes.

The three who did not irrigate had yields of 5.27 tonnes to 3.91 tonnes a hectare.

Prices for the competition wheat were from $276.74 a tonne for a quality index of 101 to $254.82 for an index of 93.

The Robinsons got the highest price, and so were ahead of Geoff and Ian Scott, who came fourth, who had the highest yield but the lowest quality index.

Two of those in ICI Cereal 85 did not qualify because their wheat did not reach milling grade because of low kernel weights.

The Robinsons' winning Otane, a wheat of a quality similar to Oroua, was given 140 kg of superphosphate at drilling on August 1, and 87 units of nitrogen at the end of September.

One spray of weedkiller, insecticide and growth regulator was applied in the middle of October, and foliar fertilizer, fungicide and insecticide at the end of that month.

They used a fungicide on December 13, and harvested on January 22.

The Brookers used an air seeder for sowing and did not apply fertilizer then, but applied 58 units of nitrogen with sulphur prills at the beginning of September.

They applied fungicide and insecticide to their Weka wheat on November 18.

Mr Jim Malcolm, secretary of ICI Cereal 85, said the three competitors who did not irrigate got yields as low or lower than those from the two ICI Wheat 84 plots on the poorest soil.

"This indicated a lower yield potential for the ICI Cereal 85 site without the irrigation which reduced net return," he said.

The second place-getting Weka is a white-grain wheat suitable for autumn sowing in Canterbury.

Weka has good quality for bulk fermentation baking, and is also satisfactory for mechanical dough development.

The intention of ICI Cereal 85 was to stimulate interest in wheat-growing practices by promoting good growing techniques for producing high-quality wheat giving a good net return.

The competition is moving to Southland for ICI Cereal 86, but will be back in Canterbury next year.

Further information from Mr Jim Malcolm, Rural Development and Extension Centre, Lincoln College 8150