With increasing input costs, volatile prices and the likelihood of continuing turbulence in world commodity markets, 2008-2009 will be a challenging season for growers.  Also new markets are emerging and existing ones demanding higher standards.  So, more than ever, there is a need to choose varieties that yield, have good disease resistance and - most of all - a defined market.   Plant breeders Nickerson look at two winter wheats and two winter barleys that fit the bill.

“With fertiliser costs up dramatically this year, let alone other input costs, growing for the market has to be the best route to a good margin on your crop, says Lee Robinson, cereals product manager at Nickerson.  “If we start with winter wheat, the important nabim Group 3 sector – unique to the UK and an important export market for UK wheat growers – has received a welcome revival with the launch of the new winter wheat variety Cassius.”

“Group 3’s are a major outlet for UK growers with the market dominated by Consort,  and then by Claire as the ‘gold standard’ and Robigus in recent years.  We now need the next generation of Group 3 varieties to keep our lead, and Cassius is a timely arrival on the scene as a new potential Group 3 variety that is available in limited quantities for sowing this autumn,” commented Mr Robinson.

Nickerson’s senior wheat breeder Bill Angus added:  “As well as a good agronomic profile, we are excited about Cassius as it is potentially suitable for early sowing in the autumn, also preliminary data from our trials shows that Cassius looks set to perform well as a second wheat.”

Turning attention to bread-making varieties, there is good news with the release of Panorama, a potential bread-making winter wheat with the highest untreated and treated yield of all this year’s candidate bread-making varieties.

“Panorama sets a new standard in yield and quality for Group 2 wheats,” says Lee Robinson. “It is a hard milling wheat targeted at nabim (The National Association of British and Irish Millers) Group 2 and has high specific weight and good Hagberg Falling Number.”

Bill Angus noted that Panorama is derived from two excellent bread-making varieties, Solstice and Xi19: “It is best suited as a first wheat but also looks to have potential as a second wheat.  Panorama has a strong agronomic profile with good lodging resistance and very good resistance to the main foliar diseases, particularly yellow and brown rust.”

For winter barley, Nickerson pointed out two varieties that are worth a closer look as growers look towards their 2008 sowing plans.

“Cassata is a two-row variety with a high yield potential and promising malting quality – it is provisionally approved by IBD (The Institute of Brewing and Distilling) for brewing use, and is coming up for full approval this year,” noted Mr Robinson.  “The variety has excellent lodging resistance, good resistance to Rhynchosporium and brown rust, and a high specific weight.  Cassata is resistant to Barley Mosaic Virus which gives it a major plus on land infested with BMV – for example, some areas of the Cotswolds.”

On the feed front, Mr Robinson suggests growers consider Retriever - an exceptionally high yielding two-row feed variety with yield levels comparable to many of the six-rows.  It is a variety that has performed particularly well in the north of the UK.  Retriever has good disease resistance, particularly to Rhynchosporium and net blotch.  It has short straw and good lodging resistance when PGR treated.  Like Cassata, Retriever is resistant to Barley Mosaic Virus.

“To sum up, as I said at the beginning, we are looking at a turbulent and uncertain future for world commodities and, like it or not, UK wheat and barley growers are part of that uncertainty.  So it is while it is important to keep growing established varieties that continue to perform well – think of Einstein, Alchemy and Pearl for instance – it is also important to look ahead to the future and move some of your acreage to up-and-coming varieties such as the four discussed here,” he concluded.

To read more about any of these varieties, just click on the variety name or select from the left hand menu.