Sensas Milling Wheat

Sensas product logo

• Spring milling wheat with fast development, suitable for drilling from July onwards
• Consistently high grain quality and milling characteristics
• Good overall disease resistance
• Fully awned cultivar with good straw strength
• Only true spring wheat available on the market

Description

SENSAS is a French bread wheat from RAGT (formerly Serasem) in France and has been developed in New Zealand by PGG Wrightson Grain (PGW Grain). SENSAS wheat develops quicker than any other wheat cultivar on the market, making it the ideal choice for later spring plantings and plantings from late July where the availability of late season moisture is unreliable (e.g. limited or no irrigation). It reaches maturity earlier than any other of the spring wheat options, and it has excellent sprouting resistance. Together these qualities allow for greater flexibility with drilling and harvesting. It is preferred by millers as it has plump grain with high protein, high test weights and falling number that readily meets milling specifications.

Yield

SENSAS yields competitively to Reliance and Conquest and remains the only true spring milling wheat cultivar in the market.

CPT SENSAS spring grain quality (4 year mean)

Canterbury (Spring)

Lower NI (Spring)

Kernel weight (1000 seed weight) 47 44
Test weight (kg/hl) 83 82
Protein content (%) (N% x 5.7) 13.0 13.2
Screenings (%) 0.7 0.5
Falling number (sec) 384 385

SENSAS has excellent kernel characteristics, especially high test weights and low screenings. It has a high falling number and low pre-harvest sprouting susceptibility. These traits, along with its disease profile, make it an easy care, low risk cultivar.

Time of drilling

SENSAS is a fast developing cultivar which must be drilled in the appropriate drilling window to minimise the risk of frost damage during the flowering phase and also bird damage during the later stages of maturity. It has a recommended drilling window from August through to mid October. It can be drilled later than this since its fast development helps to shorten the interval to harvest, although, as with any cultivar, yield may be reduced from late planting.

Speed of development

Month planted

Typical heading dates for SENSAS in Canterbury

Early August Late November
Mid-September Early December
Mid-October Mid–December

SENSAS is rated as an early maturing cultivar at harvest.

Seed rate and tillering characteristics

SENSAS has moderate tillering ability, and seed rate trials have shown that target plant populations should be within the standard seed rate guidelines published by PGW Grain.

Soil type, rotation and geography

SENSAS is suitable for all New Zealand spring wheat growing regions, although drilling date needs to be planned carefully in areas which are prone to late season frosts. Optimum yield and grain quality performance is most likely to be achieved with irrigation or regular rainfall.

Disease resistance

SENSAS has a good disease resistance profile, being moderately resistant to stripe rust and powdery mildew, with intermediate resistance to leaf rust. Considering this disease profile as a spring wheat, SENSAS can be grown with a reduced fungicide programme. Please contact your local PGW Representative for site specific recommendations.

Disease resistance results:

Disease

PGW Grain disease nursery ratings
(9 highly resistant, 1 highly susceptible)

Stripe rust 7
Leaf rust 7
Powdery mildew 8
Fusarium head blight 7

Straw strength and height

SENSAS is a medium height cultivar with good standing power. A plant growth regulator (PGR) programme should be considered for high yielding crops when under irrigation. The actual programme is determined by a combination of sowing date, seed rate, nitrogen use, crop thickness and yield potential. As with any cultivar, do not apply if the crop is under any form of stress. Please contact your local PGW Representative for site specific recommendations.