Humber

Humber is a versatile winter wheat suiting a wide range of growing conditions and locations.

With exceptional straw strength and robust disease resistance – especially for eyespot – it can be pushed hard to maximise yield with minimum lodging risk.

Humber can be drilled across a wide range of sowing dates from early September through to December always producing high yields and excellent grain quality.

 

End use

Group 4 Hard Feed wheat with bold, plump, hard endosperm grain, good specific weight (76.5kg/hl) and the highest Group 4 Hagberg (289) on the HGCA Recommended List.

 

Early sowing

Humber can be sown from the first week of September. With good winter dormancy and relatively late spring development it won’t become too proud over-winter.

Humber also has very short, very stiff straw – and uniform, synchronous tillering. As a result, it seldom lodges making it a low risk, easy to manage variety even from early sowing.

Combine this with excellent eyespot resistance – an increasing problem in early sown wheat – and it is ideal for those looking for a prompt start to their drilling programme.

Data source: HGCA Recommended List 2009/10 for winter wheat

Lodging without PGR	Lodging with PGR	Straw Height without PGR (cm)
9	9	83

 

Second and first wheat – heavy or light land

As a second wheat, with its high 7 rating for eyespot, Humber has performed well – particularly on farm – giving good yields and a highly presentable grain sample.

In addition, Humber yields well as a first wheat. Here, its perfect double-9s for lodging with and without PGRs, as well as its forgiving nature and robust agronomics, allow the variety to be pushed hard for very high yields.

Trials also show that Humber is equally at home on lighter land as well as on moisture retentive heavy soils, whatever the rotation or drilling slot.

So, wherever, whenever you choose to grow Humber, it’s a sure fire bet for top performance.

 

Agronomy

Humber is a medium tillering variety and seed rate should take into account sowing date and soil fertility.

While clearly an exceptionally short, stiff variety, a good PGR programme is prudent in very fertile field situations.

Humber has good resistance to the major diseases. However, to ensure the highest yields, a full fungicide programme is advised. In very high pressure situations a specific treatment for mildew and possibly brown rust may be required.

Data source: HGCA Recommended List 2009/10 for winter wheat

Humber	(1-9)
Mildew	5
Yellow Rust	9
Brown Rust	6
S. nodorum	5
S. tritici	5
Eyespot	7
Fusarium ear blight	5

Humber is susceptible to chlorotoluron