THE wheat yield world record has tumbled again with an English farmer’s effort to edge out a Kiwi counterpart now officially recognised.
Northumberland farmer Rod Smith has recorded a remarkable yield of 16.52 tonnes per hectare on his farm near the Scottish border which knock’s off New Zealander, Mike Solari’s five-year-old record of 15.64 t/ha set on the southern tip of the South Island in 2010.
Mr Smith’s record has been officially recognised by Guinness World Records and is reported to have been achieved with similar input costs to those used across the farm. Farmers Weekly quoted the costs of fertiliser, seed and spray at £46 per tonne.
The crop was a winter wheat variety called Dickens and the record came just 10 days after a 16.5-tonne crop was produced by a Lincolnshire farmer.
The yield pushed Mr Smith’s yield average to above 14 t/ha in the last European summer on his 400 ha property.
“We may be well outside the country’s arable heartland but there’s a long heritage of first-class wheat growing up here which deserves the wider recognition we hope our achievement will bring,” Mr Smith told Farmer’s Weekly.
“Having said that, it was only in 2014 that we managed to break my father Jimmy’s 11.6 t/ha farm average wheat record set a good 15 years ago.
“And we’re convinced our ‘next generation’ team has plenty of room for improvement in the years ahead,” he said.