New Zealand grower breaks wheat harvest world record

A grain grower in New Zealand has broken the world wheat yield record. With his extremely good harvest, he has achieved the Guinness World Records for the second consecutive time.

The new world record is held by Eric Watson from Ashburton, New Zealand's South Island. The grower was able to harvest no less than 17,398 tons of wheat per hectare. This amply surpassed the previous record of 16,791 tons per hectare. The previous record came from 2017 and was also in the name of Watson. Before that, a British grain grower was the record holder with 16,5 tons per hectare.

Almost twice as high as in the Netherlands
The yield associated with the new world record is remarkably high. On average, the yield of irrigated wheat in New Zealand is 12 tons per hectare. By way of comparison: according to CBS, an average of 2019 tons per hectare of wheat was harvested in the Netherlands in 9,6, a record yield. That was 9% more than the year before and more than a ton above the long-term average.

Watson is proud of his result and sees it as a reward for hard work and continuous innovation. "We saw ways to achieve an even higher return than in 2017," he told NZ Herald. The grower attributes this gain to testing new cultivars, switching to liquid nitrogen and more regular monitoring of the crop. Watson indicates that his yields have increased by 100 to 200 kilos per hectare in recent years.

Favorable circumstances
The new world record was set with the Kerrin breed. The wheat was sown in April 2019 and harvested on February 17, 2020. The climatic conditions in New Zealand are apparently favorable for grain cultivation. Last year it was relatively dry in the country, but that does not have to be a problem for grain cultivation, which benefits from many hours of sunshine. In addition, most farmers have good irrigation options. New Zealand harvests about 400.000 tons of wheat annually.

Jeanette Pennings

Jeannet has her roots in the flower bulb sector and she grew up on an agricultural company in the northern part of North Holland. As a generalist she reports for Boerenbusiness across all sectors. She is also exploring the possibilities of sponsored advertising.

j.pennings@boerenbusiness. Nl

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