Wheat field

Wheat is the most widly grown crop in the UK. Nationally yields average around 8 t/ha/

About half of the wheat grain produced in the UK is used for animal feed; about one-third is used for milling into bread and biscuit flour. Some is used for grain distilling for whisky, potable alcohol and bioethanol.

The vast majority of wheat sown in the UK is winter wheat; just 2-5% of wheat is sown in spring.

Wheat is the mainstay of many arable rotations. The greatest area of wheat is sown after a non-cereal break crop (OSR, Beans, sugar beet) though a sizeable area is grown as a second wheat, with much less grown as third wheat or continuous wheat. 

For every tonne of wheat sold a levy of 63p?? is collected by AHDB to conduct marketing, research and knowledge exchange on behalf of growers. Current prices for wheat grain can be found on the AHDB website here.

AHDB conducts extensive trials each year to evaluate the best wheat varieties, culminating in the Recommended List. 

The Wheat Growth Guide gives a quantitative overview of how wheat develops and grows in the UK, using a range of benchmarks compatible with a crop yielding 11 t/ha.

 

 

Related Organisations

Content below is from across the PEP community and is not necessarily endorsed by Stewards or by PEP

Connected Content

YEN

The Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) was launched in 2012 to support and energise on-farm learning-by-sharing and thus to enhance farming progress.

Smart App for Wheat Pests

Help us develop a smart app for the management of wheat pests

Brown Rust

Puccinia triticina is specific to wheat. Other pathotypes can affect barley, rye and triticale. 

Crops

The major commodity crops in the UK are wheat, barley, oilseed rape, field beans, sugar beet and potatoes, but around half of agricultural land grows grass.   

Septoria

Commonly known as Septoria or Septoria leaf blotch, this is the most damaging foliar disease in the UK for Winter Wheat. With a carefully constructed fungicide programme and use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), disease pressure can be managed and losses greatly reduced.  

Slug-Resistant Wheat

Slug-Resistant Wheat A project to explore the properties of Watkins 788, a landrace wheat believed to be resistant to slugs, never before been grown in the UK. 

Yellow Rust

Yellow rust is an important economic disease of wheat. Often occurring more in the east of the UK and areas with mild winters and cool, damp summer weather. A good selection of resistant varieties and well-timed chemical applications can provide effective control of the disease and minimise losses.

Orange Wheat Blossom Midge (OWBM)

Orange wheat blossom midge can seriously damage yield and quality of susceptible wheat varieties but it depends on whether the egg-laying adult females emerge at the time when the wheat is at the at risk growth stage. Adults are small (1.5-2.5 mm long) and are a very distinctive bright orange colour.

Cereal YEN

The Cereal YEN was established in 2012, and is the longest-running Yield Enhancement Network.

UK Flour Millers

  The flour milling industry plays a vital role in feeding and nourishing the nation – flour is an ingredient in 30% of supermarket foods. UK Flour Millers is proud of the part it plays in ensuring the industry continues to operate efficiently and reliably so that everyone can enjoy their daily bread. 

Swift Detect

Rapid crop disease detection. SwiftDetect can reveal the level of disease in your crop even in the latent period, with results in 1 business day.

Yield Prospects 2022

What are the prospects for yield in 2022?  Share your views here

AHDB Recommended List

The AHDB Recommended Lists for cereals and oilseeds (RL) publications and resources provide information on yield and quality performance, agronomic features and market options to assist with variety selection. The RL is updated annually with the latest update for 2024/25 being published on 27th November 2023. The latest lists can be accessed online here.

RAGT

At the root of all the best seed varieties.

Claydon Seed Drills

The Claydon Opti-Till® System, is a holistic approach to crop establishment which delivers consistent, high yielding crops at low cost, providing maximum profitability. At the centre of Opti-Till® Seed Drilling System is the Claydon direct strip Hybrid drill, with its unique leading tine technology.

Arable

Arable crops in the UK make up just under half of the farmed area (3.9M ha out of 9M ha)

Wheat Bulb Fly

The Wheat Bulb Flu (Delia coarctata) is a small fly - the larvae (grubs) burrow in stems and cause tillers to die (dead-heart damage symptoms).

Wheat Growth Guide

The Wheat Growth Guide was first published in 1999, following extensive measurement of a range of reference crops in HGCA funded projects. The AHDB Wheat growth guide allows crop progress, structure and final performance to be measured and compared against a series of UK benchmarks. To manage crops effectively, it is important to set targets, assess progress, adjust inputs and monitor success. Our wheat growth guidance outlines the main crop growth stages and components of yield, as well as the opportunities for management.

Triticale

Triticale is a cross between wheat and rye. It has been shown to be a high yielding relatively low input crop that can do well in second cereal and less fertile conditions, but its adoption is hampered by lack of a reliable consistent market.

Bioethanol

Biofuels have been mandated in road fuel since 2008 to help reduce the fossil carbon emissions from petrol and diesel.  

Nitrogen Timings for Bioethanol

Report from 2011 by ADAS for NEPIC exploring how nitrogen fertiliser rates and timings could be optimised for bioethanol production.

Sus-Crop ERA-NET

Cofund on Sustainable Crop Production from EU ERA-NET programme

AHDB Recommended List

The AHDB Recommended Lists for cereals and oilseeds (RL) publications and resources provide infor

Benefits of mixing wheat varieties

This project is a Rothamsted funded project under the FarmInn initative, that considered th

Wheat Quality

This Topic doesn't yet have a Stewarded summary, but connected groups, content and organisations show below. Click the 'Ask to Join' button if you would like to be a Steward for this Topic and provide a summary of current knowledge and recommend useful resources, organisations, networks and projects. "Like" this Topic if you would like to see it prioritised for providing a wikipedia style summary.

Cereals

Oli Group

Hello intro

CIMMYT

International Wheat & Maize Improvement Centre

Grass Weeds

Grass weeds are a major challenge in UK agriculture and are often highly competitive in arable crops. Some of the most common grass weeds in the UK include: Black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides), Italian rye-grass (Lolium multiflorum), Brome (Bromus sp.), wild-oats (Avena sp.), Couch grass (Elytrigia repens), annual meadow grass (Poa annua) and Rat's-tail Fescue (Vulpia myuros). You can find specific topic pages for black-grass and brome. See also related topics of: broad-leaved weeds, herbicides, herbicide resistance and integrated weed management

Pest and Disease Survey

The Defra Pest and Disease survey has been running for approximately 50 years and monitors endemic pests and diseases in winter wheat and winter oilseed rape, along with accompanying information about agronomic practice and pesticide inputs to the crop.

Wheat Initiative

Co-ordinating Global Wheat Research

Ergot Explained

Ergot is a fungus that grows on rye, triticale, wheat and barley, and to a lesser extent, oats. It also affects a wide range of grasses, particularly blackgrass. Although the disease has a relatively small effect on yield, ergots contain large amounts of toxic alkaloids that can pose a pose a risk to animal and human health.

BYDV resistance

RAGT varieties with BYDV resistance are branded Genserus

Take-all

Take-all is a root disease caused by the soil dwelling ascomycete fungus Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici. The fungus is capable of infecting cereal crops such a wheat, barley, triticale and rye however, oats are immune. Take-all can also affect several common grasses such as couch grass and bromes. Another variety of take-all fungus (graminis var. avenae) can infect oats and other cereals, but this is currently very rare in the UK.

Practices to Increase Wheat Grain Protein

Montana State University Publication

Growing yellow peas in Wallonia in a pea-wheat intercropping system

This allows for a good exchange of services between these two crops, as the peas provide nitrogen to the cropping system while the wheat acts as a support for the pea.

Pulse PEP
Variety blend tool for winter wheat

Based on RL data and parental diversity information, use the variety blend tool to select three-way or four-way mixes for on-farm testing.

Integrated pest management (IPM) of cereal diseases

Our guidance covers major and minor diseases that affect wheat, barley, oats, rye and triticale. (AHDB)

Getting to The Roots of Black-Grass's Waterlogging Tolerance

Root structures and genetics give the weed an advantage over wheat and explain field patches.  

Agrii Focus - Adapting to the Changing Risks in Farming

With extreme weather patterns, evolving subsidy schemes and volatile markets the 'goal posts' are constantly changing. At our open day we look and discuss how arable farms can adapt and thrive in the new environment, drawing on the many and varied resources available through Agrii and its Agronomists.

NCSPulse PEP
Nitrogen for winter wheat – management guidelines

Guide produced by Roger Sylvester-Bradley for AHDB in 2009, setting out the best practice approac

Wheat Improvement - Food Security in a Changing Climate

This comprehensive textbook will serve as a go-to reference work for young research

Feasibility study into combining data resources to explore the drivers of crop yield in winter wheat and oil seed rape

Project report from FERA (James Rainford, Glyn Jones, Roy Macarthur & David Garthwaite) for D

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