Farms director at Heathcote Farms in Bedfordshire, Andrew Robinson, has a close relationship with KWS, overseeing trials at the enterprise’s main site at Toddington for some time. Operating across three main units, there’s a mix of medium, greensand and chalk soils.

The rotation has adapted to become more flexible, usually consisting of a first and second wheat or barley, followed by a break crop, which will either be oilseed rape, peas, beans or oats, says Andrew.

“We run a lot of trials at Toddington and have done so for many years but have ramped up the amount of trial work since 2014. We’re fortunate to have worked very closely with KWS for many years and this two-way relationship has seen us benefit from seeing some of the firm’s new varieties before commercial release, with Vibe being no different.

Andrew grew Vibe in both large-scale plot trials and in split-field commercial trials for Harvest 2024 and in both cases, the variety performed well. “It had good treated and very good untreated yield, was stiff and its disease scores followed through, with the variety remaining clean during an extremely testing season.

“During which we saw our wheat yields down from our 10- year average of 11.46t/ha to 10.18t/ ha, but in the commercial split-field trial, Vibe yielded above the year’s average at 10.53t/ha.

“We’ve planted 55ha for Harvest 2025, some of which was planted just before the biblical rain we had on 22 September 2024, while a further two fields were sown in early November,” he explains. “Incredibly, more than 90% of the September-drilled crop has survived, which we believe is partly down to the variety’s strong vigour.”

The crop has had a pre-emergence based around aclonifen but no post-em due to the ground being saturated, adds Andrew. “As of mid-April it’s received 51kg/ha SO3 plus 185kgN/ ha and it’s due another 55kgN/ha; the September-drilled area has had a T0 based around a PGR, nutrition and the biostimulant Scyon.

“Vibe has come through the winter extremely well considering the start it had, plus I’ve seen good vigour in the spring as well. So far it looks clean but I want it to yield 3-4% above Crusoe and RGT Illustrious while achieving 13% protein to maintain its position on farm,” he concludes.

This article was taken from the latest issue of CPM. For more articles like this, subscribe here.

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