Group Three Award Winner at £54.16/t Variable Costs – South EAU Farm Partnership.

Key Factors: 

• Regular monitoring

• Adaptable approaches

• Targeted input regimes

South EAU Farm Partnership has won our Best in Field Award for Winter Wheat, 2024, with a cracking variable cost of production of £54.16/t.  

Rob Wilkinson is Director of Farming at Strutt & Parker, and responsible for managing South EAU Farm Partnership – in addition to being an AICC independent agronomist.  

South EAU Farm Partnership is a 360 acre farm based in Lincolnshire comprised of various soil types, including silty-clay loam. Their rotation includes winter wheat (focusing on Group Three first wheats), spring beans, spring barley and winter triticale for a biodigester – plus sugar beet and potatoes when rotations and soil type allow.  

We caught up with Rob to learn more about his award-winning winter wheat production…

Wheat is a popular crop and a fantastic award to win - How does it feel to have your hard work recognised?  

It feels great. I’m very surprised! It’s lovely to have the award. An important part of my role is trying to get value out of everything we do and delivering the best margin for my clients.  

Five years' worth of winter wheat data on your Analytics Platform, all grown beneath market median – what's your secret? 

I’m an independent agronomist, and I treat every crop I see as I see it. Due to my wider role managing the business in terms of cashflows, I’m very mindful of what the outputs can be.

For this 2024 crop, both fields were drilled late, in November and January. So, I knew we were unlikely to get high yields, despite good establishment, and I managed our costs accordingly.

Luckily, I have a great client who supports my decisions and a fantastic contractor who always works in a timely manner.  

How do you manage the relationship between yields, cost and quality?  

It’s a real balance. Budgets and cashflows are always calculated as we put crop into the ground. Ultimately, I look for yield, as I know this farm has potential to produce well. But I also look at the wider scenario... We have some blackgrass issues which can be overcome by delayed drilling, even if it means forsaking yield to get a clean crop.  

We also focus on nutrition closely. It's a rounded approach of aiming for good output at sensible cost, whilst maximising everything we can.  

Speaking of inputs – Every input on a £/ha basis for your 2024 winter wheat was lower compared to 2023, except fungicide. This lowered cost of production by roughly £24/t. Was this deliberate cost saving?  

Certainly in terms of herbicide. Because we delayed the drilling, we were able to control the grassweeds and save on herbicide budget. Of course we’d aim to drill earlier, but it wasn’t possible with the rain.  

The delayed drilling did allow for an extra pass of glyphosate and we got our pre-em on. Subsequently, this year’s crop is looking clean too.  

Our fungicide spend was as expected, even with ag-inflation on some new chemistry. I treat the crops as I see them in front of me.  

So you’re reacting to the season?  

We grow Group Three varieties and they’re not always the most robust in terms of disease profile.  

We’re in a funny area, because we’re not in ‘The Wash’ where rust is prevalent, nor are we in the West where Septoria is a major issue. We seem to get a bit of both. So understanding the possible weaknesses in your varieties is important and we do invest in keeping the crops healthy.  

Looking over your Analytics Platform, there’s a lot of deliberate nutrient strategies. Sulphur within the Nitroflo fertiliser, trace elements going on in spring (magnesium, zinc, more sulphur...) Is this also reactive or prescriptive?   

A combination. We test the soils on a rotational basis every five years for deep analysis.  

We’re reasonably alkaline and some of our heavier land is high in magnesium. 

Sulphur is like oil in an engine – it keeps everything going. My training taught me how beneficial sulphur is, especially the nitrogen-sulphur ratio. Plus, sulphur helps mitigate mycotoxins.  

Zinc helps with winter hardiness and brings some energy.  

Tissue sampling throughout the season guides my decisions on trace elements... I monitor and adjust my programme to suit the results I’m observing in the field.  

And some molluscicide on the Platform. Suffering from slug pressure? 

Despite not growing OSR for seven or eight years we do still have a slug problem.  

The land is under-drained and slug pressure has nearly led to crop failures in the past. We look to treat first, then monitor and treat subsequently if we must.  

For this 2024 crop, the later sown field was under a lot of pressure – so we made the decision to apply.  

One of your inputs on the award-winning 2024 wheat is one I’ve never heard of – Fulvic 25. Talk to me about this product and the choice to use it.  

Fulvic helps the plant pull in nutrition, fungicide and herbicide. I’ve used it at South EAU Farm Partnership a few times when plants are under stress to improve their ability to absorb inputs. But it’s important not to ‘weed & feed’. 

The fulvic is simply about getting material into the plant as effectively as possible.  

I’m reviewing this decision and learning more about it. The potential benefit for improving efficacy of nutrition / inputs would be reducing application rates. 

Final input to discuss is the most costly; fertiliser. £139/ha spent on this award-winning wheat crop. What’s your strategy?  

We don’t use variable rates and we use only liquid.  

For a normal season (whatever that is!) we often require three / four loads.  

As soon as the bag price is launched, I get on the phone to our merchant, who offers competitive prices. I split purchasing between autumn and spring due to tank storage.  

This 2024 crop benefited from some excellent pricing. We aim for 170-200kg/ha. Group Three’s don’t need an enormous amount of protein.  

For the last few years this strategy has proved to be spot on.  

We’re lucky with our supplier – they're competitive and honest.  

Final questions about your winter wheat – What drives your variety choices? You’ve won this award with two Limagrain varieties, Prince and Astronomer.  

The Group Three variety market historically has been quite narrow. We’ve grown Astronomer for a few years, the end-users like this variety. The grain quality is excellent with respectable yields and disease resistance.  

I opened a discussion with Limagrain last autumn and chose to try Prince for different scenarios, such as very late drilling (which isn’t a particularly fair test!)  

We’re always looking for true Group Three varieties because we can sell the grain a few miles up the road.  

2024 Astronomer was drilled with a seed rate roughly a third higher than market median. Do you favour a bold seed rate? 

We have had some plant thinning due to the slug pressure.  

As we’re drilling later, we bolster seed rate to keep population high. This also helps with our grassweed problem by providing competition.  

You switched away from KWS to Limagrain in 2021. Any reasons? 

Simply new varieties becoming available on the RL List and adapting. For 2025, we have the newest variety Bamford in the ground, and I’ll switch a proportion again in 2026.  

Every variety has an Achille’s Heel. I attend Field Days, monitor trials data, and simply make the best decision for the farm. 

I’ve rattled off a lot of figures from your Analytics Platform. How’re you finding your digital tool? 

I’m enjoying it. It’s even nice to analyse areas where we can improve.  

I like to analyse my spend on Ag-Chem compared to market median. Even £10/t extra is a £2500 saving once we’ve sold 250t. That helps me protect the bottom line for my clients.  

I enjoy the graphics on the platform too – a picture paints a thousand words – and it means I can pick up insights quickly.  

Switching hats to your farm advisory capacity...With input costs staying high and commodity prices fluctuating, what are some of the top financial levers farmers can use to protect their margins? 

I always start with costs of production. And be realistic. Go off three-to-five-year average yield data. Plan your programme on what you’re spending and what you’re hoping to get out of it.  

This should all be done before seed goes into the ground. Knowing your costs and market values, and the difference between, shows which decisions are worthwhile. 

You then need to monitor the crop regularly and start thinking about how to market it. It helps to have a good relationship with several merchants and be aware of beneficial premiums / contracts.  

Goalposts have shifted again in a big way, this time around SFI’s. How are farms supposed to future-proof their businesses in this climate? 

Good question, and probably a whole separate podcast!  

I think the industry must prepare itself for receiving very little support from government. 

With today’s markets and economy, farming is going to fall a long way down the list – despite all the efforts of the NFU, CLA, farming press and others.  

We need to get back to financially interrogating our businesses to see what’s best. I do predict some private sector aspects offering some support. But it’s difficult.  

I’ve been in this role for 18 years. I’ve seen changes to CSS, BPS, SFI... but they all have DEFRA on the other side changing the rules. And it’s very difficult to plan a business with so much change taking place.  

Thanks, Rob. Now South EAU Farm Partnership are Best in Field Award Winners for winter wheat, which award would you like to win next year? 

I’d love to get beans to work. I had a fantastic crop of beans in 2023 that looked phenomenal, but then we had a heat wave.  

If we can get a true break crop to work and be profitable then arable farming would become a lot easier.  

With thanks to Rob Wilkinson for his time speaking with us and sharing his views. Congratulations to the wider team at South EAU Farm Partnership for becoming Best in Field Award Winners for Winter Wheat, 2024. We look forward to continuing to provide valuable analysis to support their operation.