Keep end market in mind when deciding spring cropping

Key spring cropping varieties are likely to sell out this year – but the market will not be short of options.

Spring barley is still the best option for the rotational control of grassweeds – including blackgrass, ryegrass and brome – with spring wheat just not as competitive in the field.

When it comes spring barley choices, Laureate remains the undoubted number one in the marketplace, outselling its competitors while offering dual purpose end markets, as does LG Diablo but not as widely grown.

We expect to see RGT Planet slip further as the newer options gain a greater share of the market. But it will still have support from growers who have seen very consistent performance over the years.

Skyway offers brewing ability and is fully approved, as is now SY Tennyson which is more akin to Laureate with its dual-purpose credentials. Several varieties are under test for malting quality. These include LG Aquarius, Nos Gambit, Belter, Nos Munron and Olsen.

Feed varieties Westminster and Kelim, still sell well for this market, but the malting varieties arguably offer better yield.

Spring wheat

In the spring wheat sector, Mulika, KWS Harsum and KWS Ladum are the Group 1 offer, with the former, now under significant yield disadvantage. Ladum has no major disease weaknesses, with high resistance to mildew, brown rust and septoria.

There is a lot to consider with KWS varieties. Harsum has OWBM resistance. Cochise and to a lesser extent Chilham provide alternatives in the Group 2 sector, which is little changed.

Meanwhile, Alicium has the best yield. WPB Escape has the largest market share with KWS Fixum since its arrival in the sector. It is relatively late-maturing, which will be a limitation to some. Again, it appears KWS Fixum has no major disease weaknesses, with resistance to yellow rust, mildew and brown rust.

Spring oats

Spring oat WPB Isabel is the market leader with Melrin making significant headway. Canyon still has support within the marketplace. Essentially the key to growing spring oats is rainfall in June and timeliness of harvest. Conway is an early maturing option.

Asterion – newly added to the Recommended List last autumn – has high untreated yields with good resistance to mildew. The end market will dictate the preferred variety in almost all the spring quality cereals.

Beans

Spring beans will again be dominated by Lynx.  Genius remains the highest yielding option on the descriptive list. Yukon has the best mildew resistance and is the earliest maturing variety. New options include Navara and LG Hawk, but neither compete with Genius for pure yield. Synergy is a new low-vicine and low-convicine variety (LVC) and is higher yielding than the other two LVC varieties, Futura and Victus.

Peas

As far as peas are concerned, it will be Concerto (115%) and Batist (113%), which are the new top-yielding yellow peas. Carrington remains the top yielding blue pea.

Bluetime will again be popular, and Butterfly is new and again showing the strength in depth of the LSPB portfolio. Kameleon  from Senova and LSPB’s Orchestra  are the standout white peas, however availability is key.

A new pink pea category has been created for the Descriptive List to accommodate the new variety Flamingo from Cope Seeds & Grain. In trials, it was the lowest-yielding pea listed (78%), with specific end markets from uses for human consumption, to bird and pet feed.

 Vision is the new addition to the list for Marrowfats with the best downy mildew rating of 7 and with the highest yield in the sector, whilst Sakura has shown its consistency and support from the end user.

The yield gap is circa 10%, but again as with anything that involves a quality premium, will be decided by the end user. The important thing, though, is to do your research and take advice where necessary when choosing which variety to grow.

David Bouch is national seeds manager for Hutchinsons. For details, please email seed.orders@hlhltd.co.uk