Growers have the chance to work closely with arable crops researchers from Rothamsted Research on how variety choice affects the disease take-all. Volunteers are needed to host two year trials as part of its 20:20 Wheat project, which builds on previous HGCA work on take-all. Anyone interested should contact Rothamsted.

“Growers can get an early look at the latest research into take-all,” explains Dr Vanessa McMillan of Rothamsted.

“The work so far seems to show that certain wheat varieties cause less build-up of take-all in the soil. Now, we want to find out if this is the case on-farm.”

In the first year of the trial, the field will be divided in half and sown with two different varieties from a list provided by Rothamsted. In year two, the grower can sow any variety and simply needs to keep track of take-all levels and yield across the field.

“There are a few specific requirements we need from growers. Fields should be at least 1ha in size but it is not a problem if they are bigger. It is essential that the previous crop was not a cereal and that the land does not suffer from serious problems with grass weeds. Apart from these, we are quite flexible as we would like results from a wide range of on-farm conditions.”

Anyone interested in taking part should contact Vanessa McMillan or Professor Kim Hammond-Kosack at Rothamsted Research: vanessa.mcmillan@rothamsted.ac.uk 01582 763 133 Ext 2247/2527 kim.hammond-kosack@rothamsted.ac.uk 01582 763 133 Ext 2240.