On this episode of the RealAgriculture Wheat School, Peter Johnson learns how U.K. farmer Mark Stubbs grows winter wheat that yields up to 235 bu/ac on his farm in Lincolnshire, England.
Stubbs farms clay-loam soil over chalk — only about six inches of actual soil sits on top of soft chalk that provides excellent drainage and access to water, even in dry spells. “You can get our roots down over three metres,” he explains, highlighting a key reason his crop can exploit moisture and nutrients far beyond the soil’s surface layer.
When it comes to managing for high yield, Stubbs’ approach is shaped by his local challenges — particularly blackgrass, which can cut wheat yield by up to 50 per cent. He typically seeds in early November when soil temperatures are around 5°C, and acknowledges that earlier planting generally offers higher yield potential, but weed pressure dictates his timing.
Rather than relying on heavy tillering, Stubbs plants at a relatively high density for his conditions — aiming for 500 plants per square metre on 12.5-centimetre rows — because cold winter conditions often thin out tillers. “I’m about 850 to 900 ears per square metre… which is really intriguing,” he says, compared to other high-yield systems that emphasize low plant populations and strong tillering.
Soil health is central to his success. Twenty years ago, Stubbs’ organic matter was about one per cent; today, he estimates it at around 10 per cent. He credits a combination of cover crops and poultry manure for building soil structure and biology. “The roots and the exudates… it all makes that organic matter,” he says, emphasizing the synergistic effect of combining practices.
For growers chasing yield, Johnson says Stubbs’ approach reinforces that excellent soil health, thoughtful plant population strategies, and adapting to local constraints can unlock outstanding performance across a range of growing environments.
Check out more wheat management tips on Wheat School.
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The wheat school
Peter johnson@wheatpeatrealagriculture.com and we are here at the Southwest Ag Conference and we are talking wheat. Joining me is Mark Stubbs from Louth in the uk. And Mark is a very, very high whe yield grower. He's our feature wheat speaker here at the conference. 235 bushels per acre, Mark.
Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, yeah.
Incredible. And so you have to share with us how you get there. So first off, tell me a little bit about your area of the UK and the soils that you farm on, because that's totally different than the soils we have here in Ontario.
Yes. So the area I'm on is called the Lincolnshire Wolds, which is a clay loam over chalk. So we only have six inches of soil, but it's over a really soft chalk base which is really friable and you can break it down. So the stones and that from the chalk get within the clay. And so it means that the clay is only. Is like a silk, is like a silt really, rather than a heavy clay. Even though it is a heavy clay, which wheat is perfect conditions to grow the wheat. Yep.
And so good drainage, generally.
Drainage is excellent because when we get wet, it just percolates through the chalk base and also underground we have underground aquifers. So in a drought season, the water actually comes and rises up through the chalk and we can get our roots down over three metres and that through that chalk bed. Even though I'm only six inches of soil.
So six inches of soil, but ten foot of rooting depth.
Yes.
Right. Three metres. Ten foot of that. Okay, so the people here listening are saying clay soil. So the roots only go like maybe a foot or 30 centimetres deep, not three metres deep. And this percolation. Wow. So that puts you in a very high yield area.
Yeah, very high, yeah.
And so what I mean, you can be in a high yield area, not get high yield wheat. So a little bit about your management. When do you want to plant wheat? What's the seeding rate? Give us some of the agronomy.
So our wheat planting window is from the middle of September through to the middle of February. Obviously nearer February, certain varieties you can only plant then and you get lesser yields. I actually plant around about the first week of November because in the UK we have a weed called black grass which just totally smothers out the wheat crop if it gets controlling. We'd lose 50% yield through. Through that. So hence why I drill later. But even on that date my soil temperature would have been about 5 degrees and then maybe two weeks later it would have dropped down and be really low. And I understand in Canada that you can't do this because of your cold weather and you're more September drillers and that which I would also be the same if we didn't have this weed problem.
So here we would say November wheat isn't going to yield as high as, as September because of that planting date difference. That true in the UK as well?
As a rule, yes, you should sort of plant earlier to get the higher, higher yields and that. But the seed rate would be a lot less if you went a bit earlier. But because the soil temperature was still warm, my emergence was five days from planting to emergence.
Wow, five days. So that's it's out of the ground and it's going. And so what is the seeding rate at that point then?
So I'm higher than most people because everyone relies on tillerin that. But where we are, we're 300 metres above sea level and probably 2 degrees colder than what they are, sort of nearer the sea level. And what I find happens is that our tillers die off. So I could maybe start off with five tillers and that, but only end up with two tillers and one. In five years we probably will get a good tillering year. So I think let's try and keep a constant. So I'm seeding at 500 plants per metre squared on a row spacing of 12 and a half centimetres, five inches. And the reason for that, so you don't get competition down the rows.
So the tillers die off is that because of heat, is that because of drought or just that many plants that they die off because there's so much competition with bigger tillers?
No, they usually die off because of like through the winter and that the cold and that they really survive. But if we have a real mild winter we will have all them tillers surviving. But because I've gone with the highest seed rate, mine will still maybe die off a little bit to compensate. But I know that 500 plants and that I'm going to get in numbers of if everything germinated of a thousand. But as a rule I'm about 850 to 900 ears per metre squared, which.
Is really intriguing because we've had Eric Watson on and he talks about low seeding rates and 10 tillers per plant. And he's also a high yield grower in New Zealand, but you're getting 235 bushel per acre with a quite different approach. Right. We have to seed late because of black grass. Means we have to push our population up. We're not as focused on tillers, but yeah, that's really fascinating stuff and relates to Ontario as well. We also increase our seeding rates as we move later, for sure. So the other thing that you talked about, Mark in your presentation, just if you get the chance, watch Mark's recorded presentation. It's awesome here at the Southwest Ag Conference. But soil health is a big, big part of what you do and how you get those incredibly high yields.
Yes, soil health is massive and that. So when 20 years ago our organic matter would have been maybe about 1% and I've now increased that to 10% organic matter. And the way I've done that is through the years I've used cover crops when I've been planting a spring barley. Before that I would have a winter cover cropping. And I've done experiments where I found that the COVID crop helps. But I also do poultry manure. And I've also. So I've done experiments, cover crop and just poultry manure singly. But when you put them together, the actual scientific reactions you get is phenomenal and it's hard to explain without seeing it. The manure just rots down. That and cover crop to make the soil, really a lot of roots and that left in the soil to give you a really good organic matter levels. And with it being clay, it's obviously easier than other soil types. If you're on a sand, then all you can do is try your best, but you'll struggle ever to get above 2 probably percent organic matter on a sand. Yeah.
I mean, 10% organic matter is hard to fathom. And when you say from 1 to 10 in 10 or 20 years, 10, 15 years. Yeah, I go that's impossible. But when you add the manure in all of a sudden, things really start to change because you're adding enough in terms of that organic matter. And the roots from the COVID crop use just exactly as you said. And the roots, the exudates, it all makes that organic matter.
It also helps only having 6 inches of soil to work with and that. So the roots are going into a wet chalk and that after that. So I'm only sort of working with 6 inches of soil to get a really good organic matter.
Yeah, but you're pulling all the water from T3 metres deep and. Awesome. So no. Awesome. Thank you so much, mark. It's like 235 bushel per acre wheat. How do you argue with that? Planted late to avoid black grass, which, by the way, if you don't know black grass, it is a winter annual foxtail that, as Mark said, is resistant to almost all the herbicides that they can use on it and just causes huge issues. And still you find management to make yourself one of the top world wheat growers. So, Mark, thank you so much for joining us here. Unreal Agriculture, the Southwest Egg Conference, and whatever you do, grow great wheat.
