Producers growing milling wheat can use bio-stimulants to help their crops achieve the 13% protein content standard, said Timac Agro UK technical manager, David Newton.

With less available inputs this season, he reckoned that incorporating bio-stimulants into crop nutrition programmes could support crops, especially where nitrogen applications have been pulled back.

“The high price and low availability of artificial fertiliser has dominated the news agenda and isn’t going away,” pointed out Mr Newton. “However, growers still need to meet quality standards for cereals, including protein content for milling wheat.

"We therefore need to look to other tools such as bio-stimulants which can help crops meet their potential,” he argued, advising making biostimulant applications at T1 or T2 growth stages to stimulate plants to uptake available nutrients, particularly N.

“Bio-stimulants contain micro-organisms or substances which stimulate natural plant processes, such as tolerance to stress or nitrogen-use efficiency. For the latter, this means when used as part of crop nutrition programmes, we can support the plants in utilising as much nitrogen available as possible to convert to grain protein,” explained Mr Newton.

In 2021, NIAB trials on winter wheat crops using combinations of the bio-stimulant Fertileader Vital, resulted in the equivalent protein uplift of 50kg of N applied. The trial compared application timings to look at efficacy and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) improvement.

The crop was purposefully grown on a reduced N application of 200kgN/ha, 80kgN/ha below the RB209 recommendation for an 11t/ha crop.

“The greatest uplift in protein came from a combination of Fertiactyl Starter and Fertileader Vital applications across all growth stages,” said Mr Newton. “However, the Fertileader Vital gave a significant yield boost along with protein uplift with a single application at GS59.

“This means this season, growers using less applied N in their programmes can still expect to see the same crop performance if they incorporate this bio-stimulant around flag leaf stages,” he added. “It’s worth the investment to ensure contract requirements are met and crops still perform in another mixed-bag of a season."