The next generation of Scots farmers is battling it out to grow the most profitable crop of winter wheat.
More than 20 student teams from SRUC’s four campuses at Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Barony and Oatridge, are competing in the annual Mains of Loirston Winter Wheat Challenge.
The trust was established in 2007 by the late north-east farmer, Alexander W. Allan, who was committed to advancing agricultural education in Scotland. Each team of students is tasked with growing their own plot of winter wheat, making decisions on everything from variety and seed rate to fertiliser and crop protection.
Each cropping plan is then carried out on three sites managed by the SRUC team which normally looks after official crop trials. The three sites are in Aberdeenshire, Fife and Midlothian.
Among the teams competing in the contest, is one from SRUC’s Craibstone campus in Aberdeen, led by fourth year honours degree in agriculture student Craig Mackenzie, of Dunballoch, Beauly.
“It’s a great opportunity to manage a crop and make decisions all the way through,” said Mr Mackenzie, whose team came fourth place last year. You make mistakes, but you learn from them and this way the mistakes are not too expensive – like they might be at home. It is also a great way of putting what we learn in lectures into practice.
“This year we have changed variety and growing KWS Kielder. Last season it was the results on the Aberdeen trial that let us down, the other two locations had done well. I think we got our growth regulator applications wrong, let’s see if we can do better this time.”
The other members of the team are Malcolm MacDonald, Kinkell; Ross Nicolson, Orkney; and Euan Dunbar, Tayside.
Competition co-ordinator and lecturer Scott Murray said the crop submissions are looking different across the three trials sites. He said: “The most popular variety being grown again this year is Viscount. However, last year’s winner successfully grew Cordiale and achieved milling quality so gained a premium price in the market. This year, there is only one team growing Cordiale and one, Solstice, so will the risk of growing a milling variety pay off again this year?”
Crops had established well in the mild autumn and winter, and the students who chose seed rates of around 200kg per hectare had achieved suitable target plant populations and were on course for a good yield, added Mr Murray. “Those who were more cautious and went for higher seed rates will soon be considering their nitrogen programmes and use of plant growth regulators so that their crops do not get too thick.
“All this will need to be fitted around the students’ usual workload of assessments, exams and dissertation work – it’s going to be a busy spring,” he said.