Yield response of wheat varieties to sowing time

Summary

The autumn break in NSW can occur between March and June. The wide range of maturity available in wheat varieties in NSW allows growers to choose a variety that best suits the timing of the autumn break and their farming system.

Varieties suited for sowing in NSW range in maturity from winter to early spring types. This presents the opportunity to plant wheat crops from late March until the end of June and still have the crop flowering when risks of frost and heat stress are acceptable. Varieties differ in their ability to achieve high yield from different sowing times.

Variety trials in NSW are divided into very-early (long season), early and main season sown sets. Varieties are allocated to groups based on their relative maturity. Those with late-winter or winter habit are included in the very-early sown set. Those with winter or facultative spring habit are included in the early sown set and those with spring habit in the main season sown set.

Topics include:

• Trials and years
• Sowing times
• Genotypes (variety)
• Trial results
• Genotype responses
• Yield response curves for common varieties