Claire

Claire winter wheat, recommended by HGCA, SAC, and DANI, produces very high yields of soft milling grain suitable for biscuits, the blended flour export market, and distilling.
Claire performs well in untreated trials, owing to its good disease resistance. This allows a more targeted approach to producing wheat on farm.
Pedigree - Wasp x Flame.

YIELD
	Treated Trials	Untreated Trials
CLAIRE	100	79
Consort	98	71

REGIONAL TREATED TRIALS
	North	East	West
CLAIRE	98	100	101
Consort	100	98	97

AGRONOMIC CHARACTERS
	CLAIRE	Consort
Standing power with PGR	7	8
Height (cms)	88	84
Ripening (days+/- Claire)	0	+2
Resistance to sprouting	5	6

GRAIN QUALITY
	CLAIRE	Consort
Biscuit-making quality	Y	Y
Endosperm texture	Soft	Soft
Protein content (%)	11.8	11.8
Hagberg Falling Number	236	223
Specific weight (kg/hl)	76.2	76.8
1000 grain weight (g)	47.7	50.7
Zeleny volume	25.2	24.0
Chopin Alveograph - W	99	102
Chopin Alveograph - P/L	0.3	0.2

(Y = suited to that market)

DISEASE RESISTANCE
	CLAIRE	Consort
Mildew	4	6
Yellow rust	9	6
Brown rust	5	3
Septoria nodorum	8	4
Septoria tritici	6	4
Fusarium ear blight	7	5
Eyespot	5	6

CLAIRE WINTER WHEAT HUSBANDRY GUIDELINES

ROTATION
Ideal first, second and continuous wheat.

DRILLING DATE
Claire can be drilled safely from early September until the end of February.

SEED RATE
Claire has a high tillering capacity so opportunities exist to reduce seed rates. For early September drillings, sowing rates can be reduced to 160 seeds per square metre. This should rise to 350 seeds in late October. Seed rates should be adjusted upwards for second/continuous wheats, poor seedbed conditions, crops sown in November/December and northern regions of the UK. In general, seed rates should be 10% lower than Consort.

NITROGEN
The exact amount will depend on soil type, yield potential and residual nitrogen indices. Two thirds of the total should be applied at GS 32 and the remainder at GS 39.

DISEASE CONTROL
Claire has outstanding resistance to yellow rust and above average resistance to Septoria tritici so there are opportunities to reduce fungicide use. Resistance to mildew infection is moderate so attention should be paid to controlling this disease if infection occurs.

GROWTH REGULATION
For low yield potential sites - below 7t/ha - growth regulators maybe withheld. However, in most situations an insurance application of chlormequat at GS 30/31 would be beneficial.

HARVEST
In order to take full advantage of Claire's superior grain characteristics, priority should be given at harvest over ordinary feed varieties. Claire should be stored separately to optimise marketing opportunities.

All information is a partial extraction from the nickerson website and also the HGCA Recommended List 2007/8. See www.nickersonuk.com and also www.hgca.com for the full dataset