Vixen wheat – a popular choice for later sown wheat in 2020

29 May 2020 Wheat News

With some growers making the change to later sown wheat in place of a few barley hectares, and continued rainfall in most areas, sowing conditions are ideal, and Vixen, now with an Australian Hard (AH) classification in all classification zones, is proving a very popular choice in 2020!

The earlier break to the season, in many parts of Eastern Australia, should give growers a feel for its true potential this year after it exceeded expectations in the very dry conditions experienced in 2019.

In south west NSW, Vixen has proven an excellent fit as an alternative to other mid-quick and quick lines such as Spitfire, Emu Rock and Condo, in both dryland and irrigated situations.

Rankins Springs grower, Todd McCarten, is giving Vixen a run for the first time this year after hearing good reports from his neighbours that grew it last year.

“Our current varieties are Condo and Spitfire. They’re getting a bit older now, so it’d be good to bring something new into the program that’s going to yield a bit better than what we’ve got now.”

Todd is planting a total of 3900 ha of wheat this season. On May 15 he planted 50 hectares of Vixen at 50kg/ha at ‘Nargoon’, Rankin Springs.

“We had a 50ha block of red loamy soil, so we sowed Vixen into that. We’ve had good rain this year and soil temperatures have been below average for this time of year but it should be coming out of the ground about now if it hasn’t already.”

The McCartens are also sowing wheat for the first time this year at their newer block at Nymagee, near Cobar in New South Wales.

Todd says if Vixen passes the yield test at Rankins Springs this year, it may prove an adaptable variety for sowing at their northern property next season.

“We sowed Condo at Nymagee this year before we started sowing at Rankins Springs, because frost isn’t really an issue for us up there.”

InterGrain wheat breeder, Allan Rattey, says Vixen is ideally suited to sowing from mid-May onwards.

“It has excellent pre-anthesis vigour and an excellent tillering capacity, a definite advantage when sown in later parts of the sowing program.

Vixen is a very good complement to earlier sown wheats and with the earlier break, and with good moisture conditions, it provides a good opportunity to use the variety as a tool to spread flowering windows during critical spring stress periods, to assist with risk mitigation.”

While paddock and NVT trial performance in eastern Australia has cemented Vixen as a good performer in tough conditions, the variety is again present in NVT trials this year, providing another opportunity to assess its yield and agronomic performance across a range of environments, including irrigated sites, where the variety has demonstrated exceptional top-end yield performance.

Vixen is also present within a range of research and seed producer trials including AgGrow Agronomy, Hart Bros Seeds, and Baker Seed Co as well as a number of reseller agronomy trials. This provides an excellent opportunity to see how Vixen performs within your local area.

For further information on Vixen trial locations don’t hesitate to get in touch with your local InterGrain Territory Manager.

QLD/NSW/VIC: Katherine Munn, kmunn@intergrain.com

VIC: Ash Brooks, abrooks@intergrain.com

SA: Josh Reichstein, jreichstein@intergrain.com

WA (Southern & Central): Georgia Trainor, gtrainor@intergrain.com

WA (Northern): Kynan Jackson, kjackson@intergrain.com