Breeders Limagrain UK have produced a series of 1 minute videos that highlight the key attributes of its leading spring barley varieties; Concerto, Olympus, Odyssey, Octavia and Sienna.

Senior barley breeder, Mark Glew talks through the differences in markets, how to meet the bespoke quality demands of these, and where the varieties sit within the IBD (Institute of Brewing and Distilling) system.

You can also hear how these varieties differ agronomically, and how to get the best out of each variety in order to meet precise market demands from Ron Granger, Limagrain’s technical agronomy manager.

To view this series of videos in a playlist, click below.

Celebrating in style, we decided that all donations raised would go towards ForageAid this year, in support of all the farmers affected by the recent devastating floods.

You can help too, by visiting the websites below.

See website for further details: http://www.forageaid.org.uk/ or donate at JustGiving 

Mr Daubney recognises that cropping decisions for spring 2016 will have to be made following a challenging 12 months for spring barley growers. “The 2014 harvest was unusual in that the majority of crops were harvested with a lower grain nitrogen than end users want. This led to a surplus of good quality barley and some disappointment for growers hoping for a premium. These surpluses will almost certainly affect the marketing of the current crop.”

“In the north, the late and very difficult 2015 harvest has been a major issue for growers, with grain quality being badly affected. High levels of skinning, caused by the bad weather, resulted in the rejection of many parcels despite the maltsters easing their intake standards. “

However demand from the distillers is still buoyant as UK maltsters are likely to buy around 1.9 million tonnes of malting barley from the 2015 crop, whilst new higher yielding varieties are making spring barley an even more attractive proposition on farm he says.

Mr Daubney highlights that spring barley choice is driven by the end users as much as it is by agronomics. “The requirements of distillers are significantly different to that of brewers; specific varieties are particularly suited to specific end markets and consequently the agronomy requirements of the two types, is quite different, therefore understanding the subtleties between these end markets is vital if growers are to produce grain within market specifications.”

“Testing and approval by maltsters, brewers and distillers is as important to a variety as its inclusion on the AHDB Recommended List.”

“Dual purpose malting barleys are those that, after testing by the IBD, have proved to be suitable for both Brewing and Malt Distilling. The specific requirements of the two markets can be quite different; malt distillers want barley with a nitrogen content below 1.65%, whereas brewers look for nitrogen content of between 1.65% and 1.85%. “

“Also crucial to distillers is that the variety should be non-GN; non-GN barley varieties include the version of a gene that makes them non-producers of the compound glycosidic nitrile which can under certain conditions, produce a potentially harmful compound, ethyl carbonate. “

Currently there are only two non-GN varieties on the AHDB Recommended List with full approval from the IBD for brewing and malt distilling, Concerto and Odyssey.

Limagrain continues to bring more varieties to the market place offering higher yields and a range of attributes that suit different situations and markets.

Recommended in 2015 Octavia and Sienna are dual purpose types (brewing and malt distilling), and Olympus is suitable for malt and grain distilling, and this year Ovation (suitable for feed) and Origin (very high yielding, non-GN)  have been added to the Recommended List. All of these varieties, bar the feed variety Ovation, are under testing with the IBD.

To help farmers focus on the best variety, or combination of varieties, Limagrain has launched The Maize Variety Selection Guide, containing data on all the varieties on the 2016 BSPB/NIAB Lists.

The unique, straightforward guide presents data on all the varieties independently tested by BSPB/NIAB, in a series of easy to understand scatter gram charts which provide an overview of each variety’s merits compared to its peers.

Tables provide information on quality characteristics including cell wall digestibility and starch content, enabling choices to be made to maximise the total feeding quality of maize silage. Vital agronomic information such as lodging and early vigour data is also included.

“The objective is to choose the varieties best suited to the farm situation which will maximise the nutrients available to feed stock next winter,” comments Limagrain Maize Manager Tim Richmond. 

“When making the decision, farmers have to consider a wide range of factors including maturity date, agronomic factors, yield and quality which can make it a challenging decision with over 50 recommended varieties available. Getting the choice right can have a major impact on the quality and quantity of forage produced which will have a significant effect on performance and margins.”

He says the difference between growing one of the best new varieties and one of the less productive older ones could be costing up to £200 per acre in missed energy production from forage for little, if any difference in growing costs.

“Making the correct variety choice now will establish the foundations for a more productive forage next winter. The guide will help farmers through the process and take advantage of newer, more productive varieties.”

The guide is available free of charge from Limagrain. Call 01472 370117 or download using the link below.

Now in its second year, and supported by specialist plant breeding and seed company Limagrain, that has its head office at Rothwell, north Lincolnshire, the project involves draining an area of the reserve in spring, planting a special waterbird seed mixture that flourishes over summer then flooding the area in autumn. This helps to provide a more diverse food supply and make the site more attractive to bird species.

And so far this winter, bird watchers at Frampton have been in for a few treats with a record number of more than 5000 Wigeon ducks recorded and big populations of Lapwings and Golden Plover. The rare Grey Phalarope has been spotted at Frampton this month too.

Frampton’s senior sites manager John Badley sees this project as a means of ‘re-setting the clock’. The 170ha Frampton Marsh reserve has three 7ha scrapes – shallow basin-like lagoons – that are typically flooded and provide a mixture of islands and shallow water for wildlife. As part of the project one scrape a year is drained and dried out in spring and a 4ha area is direct drilled with the Waterbird Scrape Mixture.

“This mixture includes seed shedding species such as mustard, fodder radish and cereals including triticale and rye as well as quinoa,” adds Limagrain’s Ian Misselbrook. 

“It produces an abundance of seeds and nectar and once the scrape is flooded in the autumn, the rotting vegetation provides a food source for a diverse range of invertebrates that then become an attractive and plentiful food source for over-wintering wildfowl and waders as well as migrants passing through during spring and summer.

“The process re-establishes terrestrial plant species and provides the conditions that occurred when the scrape was first flooded.”

The reserve, that attracts 45,000 visitors a year, has been awarded the RSPB’s ‘Golden Welly’ for the past three years for attracting and recording the largest number of different species of wading birds.

“We recorded 35 different species of waders in 2015 and we’re adding to this all the time,” says Mr Badley. “Many of these birds, including seven species of duck as well as wintering waders such as Black-tailed Godwits, Redshank, Lapwings and Golden Plover, have been seen on the newly flooded scrapes. This demonstrates the benefit of this improved habitat.”

Limagrain is donating supplies of a special Waterbird Scrape Mixture for this on-going project. It is also supplying wild bird feeding mixtures for the RSPB’s Lincolnshire reserves at Frampton Marsh and Freiston Shore to benefit declining farmland birds such as corn buntings, tree sparrows and yellowhammers.

To read more about our range of Environmental Mixtures, click here.

Selecting the optimum combination of maize varieties will be crucial this year to maximise the contribution from forage maize and help reduce purchased feed costs, according to Limagrain UK’s Maize Manager, Tim Richmond.

“Variety choice has a marked impact on crop performance.  There is a considerable range of varieties available with new ones being launched every year,” he comments.  “This can make the choice daunting. 

“Research shows the majority of growers will plant around 80% of their maize area as varieties they have grown before with just 20% being new varieties, meaning they aren’t making full use of the new varieties that have been developed, many of which have superior energy contents and yields.  There is a great opportunity to exploit the potential of new varieties to produce more, better quality forage for a very small, if any, increase in growing costs.”

When selecting a maize variety he says farmers have to weigh up a number of attributes including early vigour, maturity, disease resistance, yield and feed characteristics such as dry matter, starch content, cell wall digestibility and ME levels.  The ideal varieties will be suited to the farm type and produce the maximum yield of usable nutrients, a combination of physical quantity and quality.

Mr Richmond says the best way for farmers to make the most informed decisions about potential varieties and to take advantage of the latest plant breeding advances is to make full use of the BSPB/NIAB Descriptive List of Forage Maize Varieties.

“The Descriptive List allows farmers to use independent trial data to compare the leading varieties available.  There are currently over 50 varieties on the list and farmers can have confidence in the independence and rigour of the data.

BSPB is the representative organisation for all plant breeders in the UK and the independent Descriptive List is produced annually.  It aims to compare varieties across the key growing locations in the UK, and specifically assesses crop maturity in terms of dry matter, crop yield, agronomic data and quality criteria.

The data set incorporates five years of trials and is divided into Favourable and Less Favourable sections reflecting the different growing areas.  Each variety is tested for three years before it can be added to the Descriptive List.  They are sown at six different locations in Year 1 and 2 and nine locations in Year 3. The trial work is carried out by NIAB and plant breeders under contract to BSPB.

“Every year, plant breeders who want independent assessment will submit promising new varieties for the process,” Mr Richmond continues.  “Over the three years of testing, varieties can be withdrawn at any time and a proportion will fail to make it onto the list.

“There is a regular turnover of varieties on the List.  The best varieties are classified as First Choice with the most successful of these staying on the list for up to 12 years. The other poorer performing varieties are classified as Second Choice and may only last 2-3 years. The key thing is that if a variety is on the List it has been independently tested and the available data can be compared against their peers on the List.  Varieties offered for sale which are not on the List do not have independent scrutiny to back up breeder claims.”

Mr Richmond says the first criteria when selecting varieties must be related to agronomy and maturity group.  He advises that whichever varieties are considered, it is vital to select the correct maturity group if maize is to mature and be ready for harvest on the target date.  This was brought clearly into focus last year with many farmers experiencing crops that ripened late, leading to a delayed harvest which in turn had consequences for winter feeding.

“It is important to remember that the crop grown is an intermediary product to the final feedstuff, it is what is available in the clamp that matters.  The focus has to be on both the quality and quantity of nutrients that will be available to feed in the winter.  This means looking at ME (energy) characteristics, which is a consequence of both dry matter yield and feed quality descriptors.

“Once varieties have been identified with suitable agronomic features and maturity date, the aim must be to select those that will deliver the best quality feed in the specific circumstances and with the greatest milk production potential.”

Mr Richmond says the total energy content of a variety on the BSPB/NIAB List, expressed in ME, ranges from 11.0 -11.7MJ/kgDM.  He explains this means the highest energy yielding varieties on the List will produce around 27,000MJ/ha more than the lowest variety.  With each litre of milk requiring 5.3MJ, that is a difference of 5,280 litres per hectare.

“To supply the potential extra energy via purchased feed would require around 2.5 tonnes of dairy compound to be fed per hectare of maize grown.  For a farmer growing 20 hectares of maize, this is a feed saving of around £12,500.”

To help growers select varieties with the highest milk potential, Limagrain introduced the LGAN (Limagrain Animal Nutrition) accreditation scheme.
To achieve LGAN status, the variety’s performance must be outstanding compared with average varieties that have been on the BSPB/NIAB List at least four years.  Potential varieties are assessed on agronomic features as well as Cell Wall Digestibility (CWD), starch content, DM yield and total energy yield.

“With dairy farmers monitoring all costs closely, maize variety selection to take advantage in developments in plant breeding to choose varieties that will deliver more milk per hectare for little, if any, additional cost could be a significant help this spring.  And the BSPB/NIAB List is an excellent starting point,” Mr Richmond emphasises.

To help simplify the choice of maize variety, Limagrain have produced the 2016 Maize Variety Selection Guide.  Including data on all the varieties on the BSPB/NIAB Lists it contains easy to follow diagrams and tables to help farmers identify the best variety for their particular circumstances.  For your free copy, call 01472 370117 or download here. To visit our maize page, click here. 

Selection on Wrong Criteria Has Big Cost Attached

Dave Harris of BCW Agriculture in Cheshire and Shropshire has first-hand experience of the implications of sub-optimal maize variety selection.

“One of my farmer customers in Cheshire regularly grows around 33ha of maize for his dairy herd.  He usually grows varieties selected from the BSPB List, in recent years using the LG varieties Yukon and Glory which combines high yields, excellent starch content and ME levels with early maturity.

“In 2015 he was persuaded to try another variety, which is not on the Descriptive List.  It has been successful in standing maize competitions but how the crop looks in the field has little bearing on how it will perform in the diet.  The seed was also £15 per pack cheaper.

“In the end, 25ha of Glory was grown alongside 8ha of the other variety.  One 8ha field was split 50:50 between the varieties so was grown with identical agronomy.”

Mr Harris says that there was little to choose between the crops during the growing season, they both yielded 16t DM/ha but when the silages were analysed there was a significant variance.  The Glory analysed significantly better with higher ME, better D value and a greater starch content (see table).

“When we worked the numbers out, based on 5.3MJ/litre and a milk price of 20p, the Glory had the potential to produce £543 more milk per hectare than the other variety.  This excludes any added benefits from the superior digestibility and higher starch content.

“The 20 packs of seed used had saved £600 but resulted in £4000 lost production.  Had the farmer swapped 100%, the lost production potential would have been £16,000.

“The lesson to me is clear. Only select varieties based on independent data and focus on the end game of quality silage.  Any additional investment in seed will be small compared to the milk production potential.”

Swede Turnip Bake

Served this way, swedes lose their overpowering flavour and become quite couth.

2 cups cooked mashed swede turnip

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

Salt and pepper

1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs

2 eggs

Chopped parsley

Cheese, grated

Mix the butter into the mashed turnip. Add golden syrup, salt and pepper and ¾ cup breadcrumbs. Beat eggs lightly and add to turnips along with the parsley. Spoon into a shallow ovenproof dish and bake at 180°C for 20 minutes. Dot with butter and remaining breadcrumbs, add grated cheese and grill 5 minutes.

Serves 4-6 with any meat dish.

Family Recipe

Murray Willocks, NZ

Timing is a diploid late perennial ryegrass that is proving highly successful on farms in France. It is a high yielding variety for both grazing and conservation.

“Timing has a great seasonal distribution of grass so it can be grazed from early summer until late autumn,” says Limagrain’s grass seed manager Ian Misselbrook. “Adding to its grazing benefits is its dense ground cover, making it more resistant to poaching than many
other ryegrasses.”

The second of Limagrain’s new varieties is the intermediate tetraploid perennial ryegrass Pensel. This nutritious variety has good sugar content and is highly digestible. Conservation yields are especially high in its first year.

“Pensel stays leafy for longer than many other intermediate perennial ryegrasses so it is ideal in a mixture used for summer grazing when other varieties are under-performing.

“It also brings great disease benefits with the highest scores for Crown Rust resistance among intermediate tetraploids and excellent scores for Drechslera and mildew resistance.”

Limagrain’s third new grass, Udine, has the highest dry matter yield among the tetraploid Italian ryegrasses on trial in the year of sowing and is 13% higher than the control. It has very good ground cover compared with other Italian ryegrasses.

“One of Udine’s key benefits is its disease resistance package. It scores in the top third among tetraploid Italian ryegrasses for all the main diseases.”

Mr Misselbrook is keen to see these new varieties bring benefits to the UK livestock industry. “The focus for livestock production is firmly on improving efficiency from home grown forages so the introduction of these new varieties, with their high conservation and feeding qualities and disease resistance advantages, should bring real benefits to merchants in formulating state of the art mixtures.”

LF Papworth contract farms for 20 landowners in and around north-east Norfolk, growing potatoes, vining peas, beans, wheat, barley, oilseed rape and sugar beet.  “We always look at a paired cropping approach with the overall GM in mind, there’s no point in drilling wheat into a field where we have struggled to lift potatoes early enough, as it just doesn’t perform, and anything that yields under the 8t/ha mark will just drag down the overall GM.”

“Where we can get 100t/ha off a sugar beet crop at £20t/ha, followed by a spring barley that yields 10t/ha with a £20-£25 malting premium, the GM’s work out
well.  We would not get the same figures from a second wheat, and as we don’t have blackgrass due to our wide rotation, we aren’t restricted.”

“A typical year would see 300-350ha of spring barley grown both for feed and malting contracts. We tend to grow a balance of malting and seed barley; having and securing a market is crucial before making the decision to grow a spring barley crop. “

“This makes malting barley variety choice straightforward as it’s important to grow a variety that the market wants; as growers we must be led by end users. The variety needs a good set of agronomics behind it, and it also needs to be able to yield – we would be looking to push our yields up to 10t/ha. We grow Concerto for all of these reasons, and over several years, Concerto has not yet let us down.”

All of the Concerto grown by LF Papworth is sold to a local group ABC ,which supplies Crisp Malting, the leading independent malster in the UK, with plants in Norfolk, Essex, Suffolk and also Scotland.

Mr Papworth also grows seed crops for Limagrain as he believes this is a useful way of seeing new and upcoming varieties in situ. “However the malsters must want the variety irrespective of how it performs on farm.”

Concerto was the first non-GN, dual use spring barley variety to be recommended in the UK.

Dual purpose malting barleys are those that, after testing by the IBD, have proved to be suitable for both Brewing and Malt Distilling. Currently there are only two non-GN varieties on the RL with full approval from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling, Concerto and son of Concerto, Odyssey.

The specific requirements of the two markets can be quite different, particularly in the levels of grain nitrogen required. Malt distillers typically need barley with a nitrogen content below 1.65%, whereas brewers look for nitrogen content of between 1.65% and 1.85%.

This pipeline of varieties from breeders Limagrain UK continues to bring new varieties to the market with flexible marketing options and improved agronomics.

Recommended in 2015 Octavia and Sienna are dual purpose types (brewing and malt distilling), and Olympus is suitable for malt and grain distilling, and this year Ovation (suitable for feed) and Origin (very high yielding, non-GN)  have been added to the Recommended List. All of these varieties, bar the feed variety Ovation, are under testing with the IBD.

Establishment and harvest priority

In order to get these yields, Mr Papworth recognises the crucial importance of good establishment. “It’s important not to drill into cold soils, we aim for 85% establishment and if this is not achieved it’s usually because the crop has been drilled when soils are too wet or cold.  We would not drill any spring barley crops before Christmas and will wait until March if ground conditions are not right.”

“We have recently started using liquid fertiliser and rates are varied according to soil type and crop potential. Half goes on at drilling and the rest as soon as conditions allow us to travel. On the lighter soils, manganese helps to get the crops going.”

Maintaining quality at harvest does mean that the spring barley crops needs to be a focus once they are ready -delaying harvest just increases the risk of skinning and germination so it’s not a risk worth taking, Mr Papworth is keen to point out.

So is spring barley a good option for growers this spring?

It looks like there could be more spring barley in the ground this year than expected, with indications that winter wheat, oilseed rape and winter barley plantings are down, says Les Daubney,  arable marketing director for Limagrain UK.

Certified tonnages from harvest 2015 for winter wheat are showing a 12.7% reduction for England & Wales, whilst Scotland has remained fairly steady, he says.

“There will be some farm saved seed to compensate for the certified figures that will reduce the shortfall, and some seed could still be in store – all in all I would say that plantings being down by 7 – 10% in England and Wales, would be about right.”

“Winter barley also looks to be down, by about up to 10% across England and Wales. There may well be a weather effect here as well but most of this is probably a reflection of another drop in the maltster’s use of winter malting barley.”

Of course with more spring barley in the ground, there will be a surplus at harvest, so it is important to choose a variety with flexible marketing options. Non-GN, dual purpose varieties offer that flexibility and can be sold for both brewing and malt distilling.

Currently, Odyssey and Concerto are the only two varieties fully approved for both brewing and malt distilling, and based on this 50% of all the malting barley bought in England and Scotland by MAGB ( Malsters Association of Great Britain) from the 2014 harvest was Odyssey or Concerto.

To coincide with the UK launch of the International Year of Pulses (YOP) 2016, Kids Country – which is the educational arm of The East of England Agricultural Society, have agreed to help by promoting YOP to 6,000 children from schools in Peterborough and the surrounding counties, at their yearly Kids Country ‘Food & Farming’ educational day, on Friday 1^st July 2016.

This one day event is designed to appeal to young people aged between 4 and 14, who want to find out more about food, farming and the countryside. Interactive stands will be showcased in the exhibition halls and cattle sheds, providing a fun way to learn.

Sandra Lauridsen, Education Manager at the East of England Showground stated “…each year at the Food & Farming day, we chose a theme in which we can encourage schools to enter competitions. This year the theme will be on Peas & Pulses”.

The children can enter into 3 competitions;

Growing Peas – schools will be provided with packets of LG’s Anubis vining pea seed so that the children can grow their own pods before the event and bring them in for judging. The idea is to encourage children to grow their own in the future, as it is incredibly easy and good yields can be achieved in a small space.

Peas & Pulses Collage – the theme is limited to food, farming and the countryside. Using different coloured, shaped and textured peas & pulses, together with a bit of imagination and inspiration, children have been asked to produce a creative collage whilst naming the different peas & pulses used.

Cooking with Peas & Pulses – children are required to research recipes and ideas to make their own healthy and tasty soup or dip for judging. This is intended to encourage schools to cook peas & pulses with children.

Sandra said the children certainly enjoyed themselves last year, whilst being in an educational environment – which was the key aim of the programme. At the recent BEPA IYP launch in London, Sandra was introduced to Franek and Justin Barrett of Askew & Barrett, meeting up with them both afterwards to discuss the schools project.

Limagrain UK have agreed to send across some Anubis vining pea seeds for the children to plant, which will hopefully enable them to produce some healthy established pea pods in time for judging. Although it is very early for dried peas (as their pods at that point will be very immature), this isn’t the case for vining peas.

George Hunter and Franek Smith intend to pay another visit in February to lend a hand in improving the next generation’s relationship with food, farming and the countryside.

For more information on Kids Country events contact Sandra Lauridsen 01733 363514 slauridsen@eastofengland.org.uk

Research and development are crucial to the dairy industry to help us advance and become more competitive on a global level and to make dairy farming more efficient and increasingly sustainable. In 2011 AHDB Dairy established two five-year Research Partnerships – one on Health, Welfare and Nutrition and the second on Soils, Forage and Grassland to provide the scientific evidence needed to underpin progress and raise the profile of GB dairy research. The Research Partnerships combine scientific expertise from 10 leading academic and industry organisations. Practical outcomes from the Research Partnerships along with other projects will be delivered over two days.

To find out more and to register, visit dairy.ahdb.org.uk/dig or call Jenna Porch on 02476 478690.

You can also download the programme below.

According to the PGRO, the market is getting used to the fact that there has been an increase in supply; trade is adjusting accordingly, and optimism remains for 2016. BEPA has emphasised that prices, market and political issues highlight the need for growers to focus on maximising yield and quality and retaining the quality in storage.

However, it must be remembered that pulse crop areas have been recovering from a historic low, are still behind the areas sown 5 years ago and are considerably behind that of 15 years ago, says Milika Buurman, senior pulse breeder at Limagrain UK.

“2016 has been declared the International Year of Pulses (IYP) by the 68th United Nations General Assembly, and we are seeing increasing interest in beans for fish and pig feeds. Breweries are looking at pulses for beer production, and there is a growing interest in pulses as a gluten free food for coeliacs.” 

“On farm, many growers are including pulses in their rotation either to meet the 5% EFA requirement in CAP greening, or for dealing with blackgrass infestations and with a 15% drop in winter oilseed rape plantings this autumn, pulses offer an obvious alternative.”

“As breeders, we are committed to pulses and are unique in our significant investment in the breeding of varieties of peas and beans to suit different farm situations and markets.”

The spring bean Fuego launched in 2005 offered growers a bean with a significant yield advantage; at its peak, the variety took 90% of the market and 10 years after its introduction, Fuego remains a popular variety.
“Unquestionably, this is due to the variety’s ability to yield season upon season. Even in the difficult pulse harvest of 2012, Fuego only dropped 3% from its top yield. In fact, Fuego’s relative yield trend has been positive for the last 5 years,” she explains.

“Based on this excellent consistency of performance and with its pale skin and hilum, Fuego is a favourite with buyers in the Middle East.”

The UK’s most popular pea Prophet was launched in 2007 at the top of the RL for yield. “Nine years later the variety is still a firm favourite, with 28.7% of the white flowered pea market share, maintaining its leading yield position on the Recommended List.”

“Its popularity is due to its bold sample with good colour retention, which has been the backbone of domestic canning and micronizing markets for many years now.”

The overwhelming success of these varieties is underpinned by an extensive network of trialling showing that the variation in yield for these varieties is less than average – certainly bucking the trend for a variety to drop in performance over time.

Also available is the latest edition of Limagrain’s Pulses Guide to Markets; this newly-designed popular brochure includes up-to-date information on the Limagrain pulse portfolio; a handy reference to potential markets that these varieties are suited to, a preview of upcoming Candidates and a look at what the prospects are for pulses in 2016. Download it below.