Saaten Union offered me the chance to test some completely new and some slightly more familiar early hybrid winter wheat varieties.
Trial objective: Compare different hybrid varieties with a conventional line variety. Is hybrid winter wheat, despite its higher seed price, productive enough to pay off?
Varieties: Hyvega, Hyreal, Hyacinth, APBH 6270-527, APBH 6409-554 + KWS Ahoi
Sowing density: Hybrids 160 seeds/m², KWS Ahoi 375 seeds/m²
Sowing: 5 September, Horsch Pronto 6DC
Fertilization: 139 kg N/ha (120 kg in spring), 23P, 43K
Crop protection:
- Autumn 2024
Herbicide: Legacy and Attribut (for volunteer winter barley control)
Fungicide: Input (brown rust was detected)
Micronutrient: Final K - Spring 2025
Herbicide: Rexade
Fungicide (HALF THE FIELD): Pioli, Poleposition, Leander
Growth regulator: Bertego
Micronutrient: Epso Profitop
Pre-crop: Winter rapeseed
Trial size: 11 ha
Do I have previous experience with hybrid winter wheat?
Yes, in the 23/24 season I grew 4 hectares of hybrid winter wheat “Hyacinth.” Everyone with some farming experience knows that season was dry, and under such conditions hybrids with stronger root systems should perform well?!
It did work — with 70 kg nitrogen in spring I harvested 6.34 t/ha, and surprisingly with 120 kg nitrogen in spring the conventional variety also gave 6.34 t/ha. Sounds like a sweet deal? Except the higher seed cost of the hybrid cancels it out — to make sense, yield should be at least 1 t/ha higher.
Okay, 23/24 was a special year — let’s do a new trial!
This time I made a more thorough plan together with Saaten Union, importer of hybrid seed.
- Correct sowing depth – 2 cm
- Sown 5 days earlier than conventional wheat
- Hybrid winter wheat is more disease tolerant, so in part of the field we skip fungicide!
- We measure yield and quality
On September 5th, the hybrids and KWS Ahoi were sown at correct depth and the wait for a big harvest began!
Autumn 2024
Conditions were near perfect. Even though I used a brand-new demo tractor (Fendt 728), not a single sowing mistake was made 😊
At emergence, hybrid wheat with 70 germinating seeds/m² looked much thinner than the line variety with 375, but going into winter there was no difference — both had well tillered.
I was busy with other sowings and only visited the trial a few times. A big surprise came when I went for autumn herbicide spraying. WHAT?! WHERE DID THIS BARLEY COME FROM?
Apparently, volunteer winter barley from 22/23 had been waiting underground. Although I fought it in rapeseed too, it decided to show up in my trial. Okay, I used the necessary measures — I wanted the field to look like wheat, not a mixed crop.
Autumn was wet and favorable for diseases, so brown rust appeared — which I promptly treated.
Spring 2025
The winter was mild, almost ideal for overwintering. Practically no damage, a great platform to continue with the comparison.
- The trial field got 120 kg/ha N in two splits
- To test disease resistance, only half the field received fungicide + growth regulator. The other half only herbicide — nothing else.
Spring 2025 was variable — rain followed by dry breaks. Quite cool, but favorable for growth.
In the field it was clear hybrids had tillered much better than the conventional variety. Where the line had 5–6 tillers, hybrids stood like a 14-tiller wall.
Even though disease conditions were favorable, big differences between sprayed and unsprayed areas weren’t visible. But visual judgment is always biased — the real answer comes from the combine and lab results.
Harvest 2025
Harvest started on August 6th, quite wet at ~20% grain moisture, but the crop was ripe and the weather forecast offered no better option.
Expectations were sky-high. Farmers were hyped that old yield records in Estonia would be broken.
I started harvesting and what did I see — five tons, six tons, barely seven tons. Did I forget a combine part? After checking, everything was fine. Welcome to 2025 reality — yield was there, but mostly in straw. Grain yield was average.
But this is a comparison trial — the new ones must perform better, right?!
Here are the results comparing hybrids and the conventional variety:
| Sample | Test Weight (kg/hl) | Protein (%) | Falling Number (s) | Gluten (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| APBH 6270-527 unsprayed | 70.4 | 11.83 | 401 | 23.9 |
| APBH 6270-527 sprayed | 72 | 12.33 | 380 | 24.8 |
| APBH 6409-554 unsprayed | 71 | 11.06 | 364 | 18.06 |
| APBH 6409-564 sprayed | 72 | 11.24 | 345 | 19.74 |
| Hyacinth unsprayed | 66.7 | 12.45 | 357 | 22.3 |
| Hyacinth sprayed | 69.3 | 11.8 | 347 | 19.7 |
| Hyreal unsprayed | 68.1 | 11.82 | 339 | 21.8 |
| Hyreal sprayed | 71.3 | 11.69 | 267 | 22.35 |
| Hyvega unsprayed | 72 | 11.9 | 320 | 22.61 |
| Hyvega sprayed | 73 | 12.05 | 311 | 25.34 |
| KWS Ahoi unsprayed | 68.2 | 12.69 | 384 | 22 |
| KWS Ahoi sprayed | 67,7 | 12.0 | 373 | 21 |
| Mix of all hybrids unsprayed | 69.5 | 11.32 | 341 | 19.47 |
| Mix of all hybrids sprayed | 72 | 11.95 | 379 | 21.43 |
Quality
- Highest test weight: 73 kg/hl (Hyvega sprayed)
- Highest protein: 12.69% (KWS Ahoi unsprayed)
- Highest falling number: 401 s (APBH 6270-527 unsprayed)
- Highest gluten: 25.34% (Hyvega sprayed)
Effect of spraying
- Protein: In half of the varieties, protein content increased after spraying (e.g., APBH 6270-527 +0.5%), while in the other half it decreased (e.g., Hyacinth –0.65%).
- Gluten: In most varieties, spraying increased gluten (e.g., APBH 6270-527 +0.9%, Hyvega +3.1%).
- Test weight: The effect of spraying varied; in some cases it improved (APBH 6270-527 +1.6), in others it decreased (KWS Ahoi –0.6).
- Falling number: Spraying often reduced the falling number (e.g., Hyreal 339 → 267 sec, Hyvega 320 → 311 sec).
Yield
| Variety | Yield (t/ha) |
|---|---|
| APBH 6409-564 sprayed | 6.3 |
| Mix of all hybrids sprayed | 6.2 |
| Hyvega sprayed | 6.0 |
| APBH 6409-554 unsprayed | 5.9 |
| APBH 6270-527 sprayed | 5.8 |
| Hyreal sprayed | 5.8 |
| Hyacinth sprayed | 5.7 |
| Hyvega unsprayed | 5.6 |
| KWS Ahoi sprayed | 5.6 |
| Hyreal unsprayed | 5.4 |
| Mix of all hybrids unsprayed | 5.4 |
| KWS Ahoi unsprayed | 5.3 |
| APBH 6270-527 unsprayed | 5.0 |
| Hyacinth unsprayed | 5.0 |
Hybrids give, on average, higher yields than the conventional variety Ahoi.
- Sprayed: hybrids 6.2 t/ha vs Ahoi 5.6 t/ha.
Spraying affected hybrids more than the conventional variety.
- Hybrids: average increase about +0.8 t/ha.
- Ahoi: increase +0.3 t/ha.
Best results among hybrids:
- APBH 6409-564 (sprayed) – 6.3 t/ha.
- Hyvega (sprayed) – 6.0 t/ha.
Yes, that magical +1 t/ha yield that would make hybrid wheat clearly pay off didn’t materialize. Even though the field picture — biomass, tillers — spoke in favor of the hybrids. As I wrote at the beginning: you don’t measure much with the naked eye; the data is what counts!
Will I sow hybrid wheat again?
We’ve had two completely different years, and maybe the third time will show whether hybrid wheat has a future.
This time we’ll run a larger trial — hybrids alongside several conventional line varieties. We’ll involve more specialists and make better decisions!
Stay tuned!
