MANY visitors to Cereals on June 13 and 14, at Duxford, near Cambridge, will be keen to find out what new varieties are on the go and the event cuts to the chase in evaluating the newbies.
It's also the place to see whether specialist crops can fit into your location. “We have a huge number of arable plots profiling everything from market-leading varieties to up-and-coming genetics,” explained Jon Day, the event's director.
“In addition, growers can compare untreated and treated trial plots, helping them to identify the most disease resistant options. As well as getting expert advice from some of the UK’s leading crop protection firms.”
As usual, AHDB's work will be a focal point in preparing businesses for the changes that lie ahead. Visitors to its stand will be invited to comment on the Recommended List review and fill in the survey on the day, or go online to do so.
An example of this is NIAB’s crop plots, which will have 40 winter wheat and 27 winter oilseed rape varieties – either established on the AHDB 2018/19 Recommended List or candidates – with more demonstration plots this year than ever. The untreated plots will give visitors a head start in variety selection for next season, with independent specialists on hand to point them in the right direction.
Here’s some of the highlights at the event:
Wheat
Cropco
It has established two plots of hybrid wheats – its recently introduced varieties Hyguardo and Hybiza.
Hyguardo is a high yielding hybrid wheat giving rapid, vigorous establishment, and also boasts orange wheat blossom midge resistance. Hybiza gives early maturity and excellent disease resistance, and also has vigorous establishment which provides potential for later sowing.
This means both can be used in blackgrass control programmes, plus as Hybiza is also early to harvest it is an alternative to winter barley.
“Both give growers time to complete a range of measures to suppress blackgrass before drilling,” pointed out John Poulton, managing director at Cropco. “Because it is so early to harvest, Hybiza is a particularly useful replacement for winter barley, providing a significantly higher value crop while spreading the harvest workload.
“Growers across the UK have found a practical role for hybrid wheat, especially on poorer land where hybrid vigour gives the greatest benefits. But this type of wheat is still relatively new to the UK, so we feel it is important to give growers an opportunity to see it for themselves on our plots.”
Elsoms
Two new soft wheat varieties, Elicit and Elation, will take centre stage in its plot.
Elicit – a newly recommended biscuit wheat – combines robust disease resistance with high yield and good grain quality. “With a treated yield of 103%, Elicit sits at joint top of the table, while its septoria score of 6.4 puts it in front of anything else in the Group 3 market,” argued Adrian Hayler, at Elsoms.
Elation is a soft Group 4 wheat with one of the highest specific weights in its group at 78.3kg/hl. “It has an excellent potential for distilling, its UKS specification makes it ideal for export and is high yielding at 104% (treated)."
KWS
New introductions from KWS include Group 4 KWS Jackal – the highest yielding soft wheat on the 2018/19 Recommended List.
Its good disease profile, with resistance to orange wheat blossom midge and high yield potential, including in second wheat position, means it is ideal for growers in the north.
The variety is suitable for a range of end use markets, including distilling, soft milling and bioethanol.
KWS’ new 'star baker', the Group 1 bread-making wheat KWS Zyatt will have a plot. Claiming the Group 1 top spot for yield on the RL, this offers yields up to 2% higher than Skyfall, several days earlier at harvest, and with high protein levels.
Good disease profile with Pch1 eyespot resistance adds to its appeal, as does its performance as second wheat. A premium bread-maker Zyatt opens up additional market opportunities with an ability to produce specialist breads in addition to a standard loaf.
Limagrain
Its plot will showcase the highest yielding wheat candidate for 2018-19 – the soft wheat LG Skyscraper – as well as a LG Jigsaw, a new high yielding hard wheat.
At 109%, LG Skyscraper could potentially be the highest yielding wheat variety ever, should it gain full recommendation to the 2019-20 List.
It has good resistance for mildew (7), yellow rust (8), brown rust (6) and septoria (6), as well as a positive rating for distilling. “Agronomically, LG Skyscraper shows itself to be robust and flexible, suitable for drilling from the third week of September, which also offers a later drilling opportunity with regards to blackgrass control,” said Ron Granger, the arable technical manager at Limagrain UK.
Two new winter wheat varieties will be unveiled by the company at Cereals.
SY Medea, a potential new bread-making candidate and Gleam, a new high-yielding hard Group 4 feed wheat will be on show.
Added to the RL for 2018/19 and due for launch this autumn, Gleam has high yield and robust resistance to septoria with a score of 6.2, pointed out Syngenta's seeds campaign manager, Tracy Creasy.
“As septoria tritici has become more difficult to control, growers have increasingly turned to growing more resistant varieties," she said. “It also offers good resistance to rusts and has early maturity, which has become important to help spread harvest workloads as well as providing a longer window after harvest for preparing stale seedbeds for blackgrass management.”
RAGT
It will be have the latest addition to its wheat stable on parade. RGT Gravity is the highest yielding winter wheat in the UK and gained automatic promotion to the 2018/19 RL as a result – the first time a feeder has achieved this in more than a decade.
This hard Group 4 variety has proved consistent, outperforming all other varieties in NL1 and NL2 and during its RL trial year.
The variety is a three-way cross of Oakley, Scout and Santiago, and commands top spot as a first and second wheat on both heavy and light soils. It has a good disease profile and is also resistant to orange wheat blossom midge.
Barley
Limagrain
LG Diablo, the highest yielding barley on the 2018/19 List, has a yield figure of 106%.
It is of medium height with good lodging and brackling resistance and is currently under test for malting barley committee approval for brewing and malt distilling.
It also has the highest hot water extract available and has very good specific weight, making it suitable for brewing and malting.
RAGT
Its latest spring barley variety, RGT Asteroid has been recently added to the 2018/19 RL as a malt and grain distilling variety under test.
It looks particularly well suited to the Scottish distilling market and will be launched commercially for spring 2020 to challenge Concerto, Fairing and Octavia.
Its main feature is a superior yield of high specific weight grain, which delivers a high hot water extract and high diastatic power.
Already approved by CBMO in France and on trial in Germany and Austria, the likelihood for export markets is high for this variety.
Syngenta
With the growth in popularity of high-yielding winter feed barley, it will feature plots of five leading Hyvido varieties at this year’s event – including two of its latest hybrids that are on to the RL, Belmont and Libra.
“Hyvido has seen a surge of interest over recent years,” said Mark Bullen, Syngenta's seeds campaign manager. “That’s partly for its high yield, but also for the benefits of its vigorous growth for competing against black-grass.
“With a UK treated yield of 111%, Belmont takes yields on the List up a notch. Meanwhile, Libra is the best hybrid barley for specific weight that we’ve ever bred.”
In addition, the company will be exhibiting its line-up of winter and spring malting varieties – including two new high-yielding winter malting varieties added to the List for 2018/19, Electrum and Coref.
There will also be updates on the up-and-coming spring malting variety, Laureate, which has full approval for both malt distilling and brewing uses on the Malting Barley Committee (MBC) list. Laureate also received CBMO approval in France in February, 2018, which will increase potential export opportunities.
Oilseed rape
Elsoms
Particularly valuable for growers in the North, Kielder shows excellent vigour in the autumn and spring and has in-built defence against cabbage stem flea beetle.
As well as a score 7 for light leaf spot resistance, it also has very stiff straw, providing resistance to lodging and making it easier to harvest.
KWS
Its new variety, KWS Django, is the latest offering from the KWS Momont breeding programme.
This high yielding conventional variety has a strong disease package in mid-flowering and has a medium-late maturity. Early vigour ensures rapid establishment which gives it east and west appeal, with consistent performance across regions and seasons.
Limagrain
It will be showing a line-up of conventional and hybrid oilseed rape varieties.
Bred specifically for UK growers, hybrid varieties such as Aquila and Architect offer very good gross output potential, backed up by valuable traits such as TuYV, pod shatter and excellent disease resistance.
Crop protection
Visitors to its stand will be able to take a walk down into a wheat trench to get a different perspective on disease control.
This will allow growers to see each leaf layer easily and compare treated and untreated plots on either side.
Experts will be available to discuss how to maximise disease control on each leaf layer, using products such as Ascra Xpro (bixafen + prothioconazole + fluopyram) and Aviator Xpro (bixafen + prothioconazole).
Its popular grass weed screen display will also be returning to highlight how existing and new chemistry will work against different strains of black-grass, plus bromes, ryegrass, wild oats and annual meadow grass as part of an integrated control programme.
As well as the recently launched new herbicide Monolith (mesosulfuron + propoxycarbazone), the treatments will feature an experimental new pre-emergence herbicide.
Corteva Agriscience
Growers visiting what was formerly Dow Agro Sciences' stand will be able to see how the company’s breakthrough herbicide molecule, Arylex Active, is performing in oilseed rape.
It has been available to cereal growers for the past two years, but Corteva plans to launch it onto the oilseed rape market as an alternative to expensive pre-emergence weed treatments.
Crop plots will show how the broad-leaved weed killer allows the crop to establish before growers have to invest in herbicide treatments.
Winter wheat plots treated with Arylex will also be on show, with experts on hand to advise on the best strategy for growers to deploy when using the product in cereals.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here