Canopy management for winter wheat
What is Canopy Management?
Canopy management is an approach to wheat agronomy that
recognises that light is the driving force for yield. It aims to build and
maintain, at least cost, a crop canopy that will make best use of available
sunlight. Canopy management gives growers the opportunity to: target inputs more
effectively; reduce variable costs; increase yields; improve gross margins;
reduce the risk of environmental damage.
What seed rate do I use?
Seed rates for winter wheat should be selected with care for
the following reasons:
- Excessive seed rates increases variable costs and reduces gross margins
- Excessive seed rates increase the risk of lodging
- Insufficient seed rates results in crops that are too thin to make efficient use of available sunlight
When selecting a seed rate, growers should consider,
- Target Plant Population (plants/m2)
- Thousand grain weight (TGW) (g)
- Estimated percentage establishment
How is the Crops Canopy assessed?
By managing canopy expansion through nitrogen rates, and
maintaining canopy health, growers can hope to achieve yields at lower variable
costs. Canopy expansion cannot be managed effectively unless it is carefully
monitored.
To monitoring the canopy effectively growers must be able to:
- Plant Population
- Shoot Population
- Green Area Index
- Growth Stage
Progress to Date
- The 15 participating growers have attended workshops organised by DARD and ADAS to review the key points of canopy management
- Following this training growers who took part in the programme, have implemented the principles of canopy management on their own farms supported by their local Greenmount Crops Adviser.
- It is envisaged that next season, participating growers will demonstrate the principals of canopy management to neighbouring growers.