Team reaps rewards for winning wheat challenge

Wet weather and an attack of nematodes in Fife did not deter 20 teams of students from competing in this year’s SRUC and Mains of Loirston Winter Wheat Challenge which was the biggest yet.

The competition, which is organised by Scotland’s Rural College, was won by a group of former Aberdeen-based students led by Forfar team captain Timur Kharisov who moved from Moscow in 2003.

Other members of the team were Heather Duff, Helen Parker, Emma Parvin, Joanne Breese and Ashleigh Nelson.

The competition encourages the next generation of farmers and agronomists by making them manage their own plots of winter wheat, requiring them to select the variety, seed rate, fertiliser and pest protection.

Each entry is replicated on sites in Aberdeenshire, Fife and Midlothian and the winning team is the team with the best gross margin return from their crop.

The winning team reduced costs by using low rates of fungicides and moderate amounts of nitrogen, resulting in the highest yield of 10.7 tonnes per hectare at SRUC’s Bush Estate and an offer of £148 per tonne from East Lothian grain merchants WN Lindsay, where the trial site samples were sent.

They chose the breadmaking variety, Skyfall.

John Rhind, a trustee of Mains of Loirston Trust, fourth left, presents the trophy to Timur Kharisov while looking on are, from left, Joanne Breese, Helen Parker, Emma Parvin and Heather Duff