Since its launch into official trials, the variety has been tested in very different seasons each offering its own set of challenges from the very dry springs in 2010/11 to the extreme disease pressure seasons of 2012 and 2014. How has the variety withstood these challenges and has it fulfilled its promise of being able to deliver both on farm and to market requirements?

When developing a new milling wheat, the variety has to be able to deliver the basics of good protein content, Hagberg and specific weight says Ian Foot, quality wheat manager with breeders Limagrain UK. But there’€™s also the quality of the flour, its functionality and baking performance and colour, and for it to make a Group1, it needs to deliver all of this consistently.

“€œYield is the primary trait we breed for to get onto the HGCA recommended list – it has to perform, but alongside this, agronomic characteristics such as good disease resistance and straw stiffness are important attributes for consideration.”

Crusoe is a cross between long time market favourite Cordiale and a Limagrain variety Gulliver which is less well known, but gives Crusoe its distinctive iridescent green colour and the genetic disposition for a high protein content.

“Quality is a genetic trait so there is an element of predictability in building it into a variety, but it’s all about the type of protein and its consistency.  The right type of protein is difficult to define but it manifests itself in the bake for bread flour and this all comes down to how the variety processes nitrogen. In a good milling variety, nitrogen is used for building protein as well as feeding yield.”€

Crusoe was identified by Warburton’s to stand out in baking tests when it was first trialled in 2007; it has the whitest flour with a high protein content and good functionality. It produces relatively strong gluten, like Gallant and has shown itself to deliver this consistently.

Stuart Jones, technical controller for Warburton’s notes how Crusoe quickly established itself as an integral part of the Warburton’s wheat growing programme.

“€œConsistency of flour performance is essential when baking at Warburton’s. We expect a lot from our raw materials especially the flour to ensure every product produced meets the standards our consumers demand. We need to know that any variety we take on has an ability to deliver against the specification year after year and Crusoe has exhibited all the Warburton’s specific traits expected during bake tests.”

“€œProtein quantity is what’€™s measured but its protein quality that matters. Crusoe puts a tick in both boxes. Year on year Crusoe has continued to deliver and Crusoe remains within the Warburton’s wheat selection plans going forward.”

Ron Granger, arable technical manager with Limagrain backs up these findings and points out that this consistency of quality offering is what sets Crusoe apart from the other Group 1 wheats.

“In all of the trials we have conducted either in house or with industry partners, the message is the same – year on year, irrespective of region, rotation slot or soil type €“Crusoe consistently delivers yield and quality.”

Launched this month (July) to mark Pollinator Awareness week, Field Margin Mix contains UK native wild flowers and has been developed to provide an outstanding habitat for pollinators.

In line with CFE’€™s objectives, Field Margin Mix has been specifically designed for farmers who wish to increase biodiversity without compromising productivity. It contains grass species and a proportion of UK native wild flowers.

“This combination will support pollinators, beneficial insects and other invertebrates and will therefore benefit other wildlife, from small mammals and ground-nesting birds to bats and barn owls,”€ says Limagrain’s Martin Titley.

“€œIt can be sown in autumn or spring. It can be used within CAP greening as a fallow Ecological Focus Area or for some of the new Countryside Stewardship options.”

Farmers can collect discount vouchers for Field Margin Mix from the Limagrain stand number F634 at the CLA Game Fair, Harewood, near Leeds on 31 July to 2 August. They can also see demonstration plots of the crop on the stand.

“€œWe are very pleased to be able to support the Campaign for the Farmed Environment,” adds Mr Titley. “€œWorking together with CFE and BASF, we are confident that that we are helping farmers to protect the environment, encourage wildlife and farm productivity.”

For more information on this mixture Click Here 

Harvested at the Hutchinsons Blackgrass Centre at Brampton on Monday 20th July, the 30ha block of Amalie yielded as much as 7.5t/ha in some places but averaged out on the weighbridge at 5t/ha. Similar amounts of non TuYV resistant varieties, Cabernet and Charger yielded 3.8t/ha and 4t/ha respectively says Hutchinsons Dick Neale who has been involved with the crops season-long.

“€œWe can assume that the yield difference must come down to the TuYV resistance as the crops were all treated the same throughout the season, and infact all the crops were swathed so could actually have yielded about 0.25t/ha more.”€

Mr Neale confirms that having established well after drilling on the 23rd August, the crops looked good all season, although the non-resistant varieties Cabernet and Charger definitely showed early signs of TuYV infection such as purpling of the leaves, which the Amalie didn’t says Mr Neale.

Amalie remains the only commercially available oilseed rape variety with resistance to TuYV on the market, and the variety was re-submitted as a candidate in the 2014-2015 HGCA RL trials based on this trait.

Amalie is a conventional OSR variety that offers a gross output similar to the widely grown variety, DK Cabernet. “However, our own trials using untreated seed over the last four years have clearly shown that where TuYV is present, Amalie can yield up to around 10% more than non-resistant varieties, so this first commercial result confirming what we have seen in trials is very exciting,” says Will Compson, oilseed product manager with breeders Limagrain.

Mr Compson recognizes that this is just the first result adding that looking ahead we will continue to report on how the variety performs for the rest of the harvest and across regions but this first result is fundamental and means that variety choice will be even more critical than ever and will require a change in mind set where resistance and agronomics play an increasingly crucial role in order to protect yield.

Agronomically the variety offers sound agronomics and robust disease resistance ratings, with a 7 for LLS and 8 for phoma, so with no obvious weaknesses there is a serious case for growers to consider making it part of their OSR cropping this season.

Amalie: Yield, agronomy and disease resistance

Limagrain has produced a short video highlighting the main challenges set by TuYV and the role of Amalie in the battle against yield losses from TuYV infection.  To watch this video, see below.

For more info, visit http://www.tuyv.co.uk/

€œLivestock producers are facing a lot of price volatility and their challenge is to manage this as best they can. Cost-effective forages have a part to play here in providing a high quality feed with low growing costs, particularly for those producers with arable land that can sow a crop after harvest,€ he says.

He draws particular attention to the fast establishment of many catch crops,€“ some of which can be ready for grazing within 12 weeks of sowing, and to the winter hardiness of other varieties that can provide keep right through the winter.

€œForage rape is a good example of a catch crop that can be fed 12 weeks after sowing.

And it’s a great companion to stubble turnips where traditionally varieties are best grazed pre-Christmas.

Limagrain quotes the growing costs of stubble turnips at £305 per hectare with yields of between 3.5 and five tonnes of dry matter per hectare. Equally attractive as a crop to follow cereals is forage rye, which can be sown as late as October and costs £339 per hectare to grow, as shown in Table 1. Yields are typically between five and six tonnes of dry matter per hectare. €œFigures like these mean that growing forage catch crops are certainly a viable and, indeed, profit-making option on many mixed units,€ adds Mr Titley.

TABLE 1

FORAGE CROP COMPARISONS

*Kingshay Farming Trust

Growing costs and dry matter yields aside, Mr Titley says that it’s also essential to select the right crop for the farm set up and enterprise. “Stubble turnips are best for short-term keep, whereas forage rape and rape kale hybrids are ideal medium to long term keep.

“Catch crop mixtures, typically with kale, stubble turnips and forage rape, are great choices for many producers looking to finish lambs or for beef,”€ he adds. “They are an increasingly popular way of providing a balanced feed that can be grazed in-situ. These mixtures should include top quality varieties to be most cost-effective.”

A high protein forage rape variety with kale, blended with a high energy stubble turnips variety can provide a win-win feed for those looking for autumn and winter keep with minimal effort. Advantages such as disease resistance, winter hardiness and early establishment have been ‘€˜built-in’ to specific mixtures too, adding to their attractiveness as forage feed stocks.

And there are other advantages of catch crops too as they can mop up any available nutrients – returning them to the soil via the manure of grazing animals – and help to improve soil organic matter and structure.

It’€™s always best to get some advice from an agronomist, look at the crops available and tailor your catch crop and the area required to your livestock needs. But when we look at growing costs verses feed value, a good catch crop is a real winner. They provide a cost-effective winter forage and are a welcome lifeline for beleaguered mixed farm businesses.

Yorkshire-based farmer Ian Elsworth agrees that catch crops represent financial gain for his business. He finishes 1,200 lambs on his mixed arable, beef and sheep unit, based near Easingwold, and says that the Delilah stubble turnips that he grows each year, after winter barley, allow him to take advantage of better lamb prices at the start of the year.

Sown soon after the winter barley is harvested, the stubble turnips are ready just 12 weeks later in October. By then Ian has lambs that he’s bought from Northallerton market – a mixture of Texel, Suffolk and continental crosses – ready to graze the crop.

“I strip graze the lambs on the stubble turnips through to February. They really like the bulb, which is a huge white tankard shape, I think specific to the Delilah variety and it’s a great way to ‘grow them on”€.

Ian buys in lambs from September to November, at around 30kg liveweight, and takes them to between 46kg and 52kgLW. He sells around 100 lambs a week from mid January to mid April with 40% sold to St Merryn and the rest, typically later in the season, through the market.

€œ”Some of the better lambs can be finished on stubble turnips,”€ adds Ian. “€œI can also hold the lambs back, if the market’€™s low, and then sell them when prices firm up a little. The crop adds that flexibility to our system as it holds its high feed quality right through the season.”

For more information on growing stubble turnips, you can download our Stubble Turnip Growers Guide by clicking here. If you would like to speak with one of our Seed Specialists, please call 01472 370117.

The variety has also seen an excellent performance beyond the borders of the northern list as far south as Hampshire.

Anastasia oilseed rape has had another tremendous performance this year not only topping the northern HGCA recommended list yield table with an average gross output of 117% of the control varieties, but also out-performing many varieties as far south as Cambridge and Hampshire.

In the northern HGCA RL trials, Anastasia yielded 112% over control varieties in Edinburgh, 116% at St Boswell in the borders and 124 % Culroos; this is well above competitor varieties such as Incentive at 112%.

“These provisional results show that Anastasia has been the highest and most consistent performing variety on the northern list over several seasons, achieving a gross output of 110% of the control varieties, ahead of Incentive 109% and Boheme 107%,” says Jo Bowman, oilseed rape breeder with Limagrain UK.

“The variety has also done extremely well in NIAB TAG’s southern trials coming top equal across our sites in terms of yield, offering moderately high oil content,” adds Simon Kightley of NIAB TAG.

“At our sites in Hampshire, Hereford, Cambridge and Bainton it was the highest yielding variety at 113%; in fact at the most southerly site in Hampshire it was the highest yielding variety by as much as 5%.”

“Some of our southern growers have been trialling Anastasia for themselves on farm this year, and are so pleased with its performance they will be drilling the variety again on larger hectarages this year.”

“This demonstrates a real consistency in performance of the variety across a range of sites and very different seasons, showing once again the reliability of the variety – a significant and important characteristic on farm,” says Dr Bowman.

“The excellent performance of Anastasia beyond the stated boundaries of the northern list, is most likely due to the varieties good resistance to light leaf spot, (6, the same as Compass, and Excalibur), which has been more widespread further south this year.”

“Its phoma rating of 5 is in line with many popular east west recommended varieties – another reason for its excellent performance further south.”

Anastasia is the shortest non-semi dwarf on the list with very stiff stems and very good resistance to lodging. “So it is easy to manage and harvest,” adds Dr Bowman. “The variety is medium-early to flower and mature, spreading risk at farm level.”

“Anastasia also has a rapid autumn development, and this autumn with concerns around flea beetle attack in the absence of neonic seed treatments and early drilling, this an important characteristic as if the crop can get up and out of the ground quickly this reduces the impact of flea beetle attack.”

Limagrain has Anastasia seed available for this autumn, for more information please call Les Daubney on Tel: 01472 370154.

“Harvested on the 16^th August in good conditions, we recorded yields as high as 14t/ha off some areas of the fields and the average off the two fields of Evolution is way up at 11.5t/ha – and we know this is correct as the combine has accurate scales that have been recently calibrated – very pleasing yields and well above what we would normally expect.”

Other varieties grown this year on Barton Farms were JB Diego as a second wheat that averaged 10t/ha, Alchemy 10t/ha and Solstice did well yielding around the 11t/ha mark.

The wheats on Barton Farms are part of a tight two wheat, and oilseed rape rotation, but this will have to change with the new CPA restrictions so we will be looking at also including beans adds Mr Ward.

“The 20ha’s of Evolution were drilled on the 20^th September into medium heavy ground, as first wheats after oilseed rape, as a seed crop for our local merchant Simon Bates Seed.”

“We used a reasonable fungicide and PGR programme starting with an early T0 but in hindsight it did not need it, as the robust disease resistance ratings of the variety held strong season-long. We would also consider cutting back on the PGR at T1 next year for the same reason.

“The crop had a fairly standard nitrogen programme receiving 200kg N in urea form.”

“For us here in the west, it is important for a wheat to be tall and Septoria resistant; we like tall wheats so that they can out-compete any black-grass and also to be able to grow away from any potential Septoria splash,” notes Mr Ward.

“We have been growing Solstice for a few years but are just finding that it is not tall enough for us now and the same applies to JB Diego, so it is refreshing to have found a tall variety that yields so well on these soils.”

“We have also noted that Solstice tends to have many, smaller ears whereas the Evolution has fewer, much bigger ears and has no problems with bushel weight.”

Evolution bred by Sejet and marketed in the UK by Limagrain was recommended in 2014 as the highest yielding Group 4 hard wheat that also offered a robust disease resistance profile.

These traits have been demonstrated fully this season where Evolution is one of the highest yielding feed wheats in the HGCA provisional trials results for 2014 yielding 105, higher than Group 4 hard wheat stalwarts KWS Santiago and JB Diego.

“Evolution has very good disease ratings for yellow and brown rust on the HGCA’s Recommended List which have been upheld this season, and the variety also has decent defence against the other key diseases of septoria, eyespot and mildew, ”says Ron Granger, arable technical manager with Limagrain.

“This strong disease resistance gives growers flexibility to adapt their fungicide programmes on farm.”

“Initial indications are that it can perform well as a second-wheat,  and  as with many new high-yielding types, Evolution is later to mature which can be used to spread work, so is a feature rather than a problem,” says Mr Granger.

Maneba has been buying soft wheat out of the UK for the last twelve years and Claire and Scout have been firm favourites based on their consistency of performance, however there is always interest in new biscuit varieties and for the second year running they have been impressed with the results from the newcomer Zulu.

“Reliability and consistency of quality is of paramount importance for milling and, it’s crucial that a variety can deliver this, and Zulu has shown itself to be able to deliver just that,” says Mr Bourne

“Milling wheat growers have been able to take advantage of the premiums available on these contracts, and we would hope that this interest in Zulu will encourage more growers to consider the variety and take up this marketing opportunity.”

“Although wheat yields in general have been better than expected this year we are particularly pleased with the outstanding performance of our two biscuit wheat varieties due for recommendation this autumn, Britannia and Energise,” says Ron Granger, arable technical manager for Limagrain UK.

“2014 was a very different year to 2013 with very high levels of disease recorded and it’s never clear how varieties will perform from season to season, but what we have seen is that both varieties have kept their place in the trialing process as strong contenders for yield across very different seasons and climatic challenges.”

“These results are based on the data from the HGCA provisional harvest reports for this year to date from across 23 sites, which is a significant amount of data, so we are highly confident that these candidates have an opportunity of being added to the 2015 HGCA Recommended List. Considering they are biscuit wheats these are very good results as many of the hard group 4’s have only just managed these levels this year.”

With their exceptional performances Energise and Britannia have the potential to set new yield standards in the Group 3 sector.  “Of the two varieties, Britannia leads with a solid average yield of 105, performing particularly well  in the Suffolk trials outperforming all other wheats at 107. The variety has also shown exceptional performance in untreated trials,  at 128, where  its very high rating for yellow rust and Septoria tritici resistance have clearly been seen to their full benefit.”

Britannia is similar in height to Invicta and JB Diego, the variety is moderately stiff strawed, and is similar in ripening maturity to Scout. Britannia also offers a very good disease resistance profile, with a provisional rating of 8 for yellow rust resistance and a rating of 6 for septoria tritici combined with good grain quality attributes.

“Britannia has good grain quality attributes and initial data would suggest that the variety is suitable for the biscuit, export, bio ethanol and feed markets,” adds Mr Granger.

The second of the two biscuit wheats, Energise, has also performed very well with a 2014 mean of 103 and 107 at the Gloucs site and Cheshire sites – equal to the leading hard feed wheats. However Energise is a very different variety agronomically in comparison to Britannia, offering growers a variety with many associated traits inherited from its parent Oakley, says Mr Granger.

Energise is a short strawed variety with good lodging resistance and the combination of high tillering, a semi-prostrate growth habit and later ear development in the spring we would suggest the variety may be a possible candidate for the early drilling sector.  “Although Energise does not offer the same good disease resistance profile as Britannia, the variety again offers good yellow rust resistance along with the resistance to WOBM.”

“Energise’s soft endosperm, together with potential for distilling and export opportunities from limited test results, would suggest that it is a variety with several market opportunities.”

Time will tell if these candidates from Limagrain will meet the criteria for inclusion onto the HGCA RL this autumn but on the whole the varieties have maintained a good performance both in Limagrain’s and HGCA official trials this season Mr Granger notes.

For a full set of trials results go to the HGCA website www.hgca.co.uk

Not only will this crop help prevent nitrate leaching, but this year’s ideal conditions and warm soil temperatures means that it will get established quickly and will has the potential to  produce a good quality feed next spring.

“This year’s maize harvest across the UK is at least three weeks earlier than usual so the majority of farmers will have plenty of opportunity to select and sow a crop that is well suited to mopping up nitrates and that will provide good quality early grazing or an early silage cut next spring,” says Limagrain’s grass seed manager Ian Misselbrook.

Mr Misselbrook advises farmers to look closely at blended ryegrasses.

“Select a mixture that can convert the available and potentially wasted nitrogen into very useful early dry matter yields.

“Look at the choice of blended ryegrasses and use one that has been shown to perform well,” he adds. “For example, the grass seed mixtures Power Grass, that combines Westerwolds and Italian ryegrass, or Blended Ryegrass are particularly suited to following maize,” he adds. “Both can produce useful late winter or early spring grazing and even an early silage cut, before going back in to maize. Or, if the land is not destined for maize next year, then a short term ley can be established that will boost next year’s forage supplies.”

He also urges farmers to look at grass seed mixtures with proven yields and enhanced nutritional values.

“We can now offer farmers grass seed mixtures with high yields and with added value in terms of feed quality. These mixtures, such as Quality Silage, are accredited with the LGAN –  Limagrain Genetics Animal Nutrition – stamp. In trials they have been shown to improve digestibility and energy value of the diet by 3% with a 5% improvement in overall feed efficiency.”

“As breeders we have various seed growers who drill their wheats after sugar beet or potatoes, and over the last two seasons we have seen some very good results from wheats drilled in this later slot, particularly from the new varieties group 4 Evolution and group 3 Zulu.”

“Both Evolution and Zulu are recommended for the mid-late drilling slot with a latest safe sowing date of mid-February,  and our own Limagrain and official data to date would suggest that these two varieties fit the later drilling opportunity very well.”

“It is important to recognise specific characteristics of wheats suited to this later dilled slot– they need to be strong tillering, with a fast ear development and growth habit in the spring,” adds Mr Granger.

“Later drilled crops are often behind the early sowings in maturity, but by choosing varieties that tiller well and have a good spring growth habit, by harvest this maturity gap closes.”

“Soils are still warm and conditions mild, so establishment at the moment should be good which is important. However seed rates need to be adjusted accordingly depending on seed bed conditions, date of drilling and weather conditions at the time – and often this requires rates to be raised slightly- but growers will know what works for individual fields.”

Later drilled varieties often have the advantage of requiring lower inputs, and may not for example, require an earlier autumn herbicide. Varieties such as Evolution and Zulu have robust disease resistance that help to combat and withstand early spring disease challenges points out Mr Granger.

This trend is set to continue with the introduction of four non-GN candidates Deveron, Sienna, Octavia and Olympus currently in recommended list trials.

Varieties suitable for malt distilling should be below 1.65% nitrogen, and non-GN, says Mark Glew, senior barley breeder at Limagrain.

Non-GN varieties include the version of a gene that makes them non-producers of the compound glycosidic nitrile.

“It’s a tiny piece of DNA, but it makes those particular varieties suitable. There are only a few of them, but they’re the ones that are tested and supported by the distillers.”

“Our malting barley breeding programme is geared to reflect the needs of both the brewing and distilling markets as whilst the distilling and craft beer markets are showing good growth, brewing is generally static or in decline across Europe. However, it is important that the varieties we bring to the market can be used in distilling as well as for domestic brewing and export.”

“Back in 2009, Concerto set a new benchmark for distilling varieties for quality and yield, and the popularity of this variety continues today based on its consistency of performance.”

“This is underlined by recent figures published on the Malsters Association of Great Britain (MAGB website), which show that ‘in the final collation of Scottish and English Spring malting barley purchases from the 2013 crop, almost half (42.9%) were made up of Concerto, followed at significantly lower volumes, by Propino (15.8%) and NFC Tipple(15.3%).”

Currently there are only two non-GN varieties on the RL with full approval from the Institute of Brewing and malt Distilling, Concerto and son of Concerto, Odyssey.

“With the launch of Odyssey in 2102, growers were offered a step up in yield of 5% over Concerto, which was enough of a difference to make growers want to try it not just in the UK but across Europe where its popularity is increasing,” he says.

However Mr Glew notes that since the launch of Odyssey there has been a lull in the market as no new non-GN ‘dual purpose’ varieties have been recommended.

This looks set to change, however, with the introduction of four non-GN candidates from Limagrain, Deveron, Sienna, Octavia and Olympus, all currently in recommended list trials.

“The first of these, Sienna is an exciting variety offering a 2 % higher yield than Odyssey,” says Ron Granger, technical arable manager with Limagrain. “Its robust disease resistance profile underlines its high untreated yields. Sienna has similar straw attributes as Odyssey with the same ripening date.”

Quality-wise the variety has excellent specific weight combined with low screenings. Mr Granger adds that it is important to note that specific weight is becoming an increasingly important characteristic for malting so this is a valuable characteristic for a dual purpose variety, adding that many varieties currently on the RL have low specific weight.

“Octavia, another high yielding non-GN variety, also has potential for malt distilling and brewing and is already in trials in France having performed well to date. Offering similar yields to Sienna, this shorter strawed variety also offers very good disease resistance.”

The third of these varieties, Deveron has proven itself to be consistently high yielding over seasons and regions with a 3% yield advantage over Odyssey.

“Deveron is a short strawed variety with very good lodging resistance and straw attributes combined with a slightly earlier ripening date. The variety offers a good disease resistance profile for mildew, yellow rust and brown rust and similar ratings as Concerto for Rhynchosporium.”

Mr Granger adds that Deveron has the potential for malt distilling, as a result of its good specific weight combined with acceptable screenings.

“The last of the four varieties, Olympus is a potential Belgravia replacement, offering high yields with potential for malt distilling and grain distilling. The variety has performed very well in trials this year, yielding 108% – that is 6% over Odyssey.”

“Olympus has a very good disease resistance profile – showing an improvement over Belgravia. It is shorter in height than Belgravia but with similar straw characteristics and ripening. Quality wise it has a good grain quality with good specific weight and low screenings.”

Mr Glew believes that the market will decide which of these varieties will survive.

“When we launched Odyssey, Overture and Chronicle we left it to the market to decide where the varieties would fit and the market very clearly chose Odyssey – we plan to do the same with these new varieties should they all be recommended.”

Yield Data – HGCA Harvest Results 2014

Agronomic Data – HGCA RL Candidate varieties 2014/15

*Odyssey – Agronomic Data from HGCA RL 2014/15

To commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the start of the First World War, Limagrain decided to offer two flower mixtures using the iconic Red Poppy Flower and a mixture of Red Poppy and Red Flax. The mixtures create a fabulous show of vivid red flowers providing a fitting and poignant display to our fallen heroes. It serves as a powerful reminder of the great sacrifice made by British and Commonwealth people during WW1.

The flower mixtures have been widely popular and purchased by a diverse range of customers including golf clubs, landscapers, music festivals and local communities; each wanting to use poppies for their own commemorative reasons.

“With the 100 year anniversary of the start of WW1; we wanted to have a product to commemorate it. We wanted Limagrain to give something back to the armed forces and thought what better way than to donate to a worthy cause? For every pack of seed sold, we made a donation to Troop Aid,” said Matt Gresty, Amenity Sales Manager for Limagrain UK.

Troop Aid was founded by Al and Pam Sutton and three ex-servicemen in 2006. Following a trip to Selly Oak Hospital’s Alexandra Wing in Birmingham, the founders discovered that when injured troops return home from war zones, they often arrive back without their personal effects or clothing. As a result, Troop Aid’s Grab Bags were born, containing essentials such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, deodorant, towel and clothing.

What started as a ‘good turn’ eventually blossomed into a fully operational charity. To start with, the Grab Bags were prepared in Al and Pam’s home for three years before it became a registered charity. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is now the patron of Troop Aid and just this year the charity received The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, plus the Chief of the Defence Staffs Commendation for rare and exceptional service to the military community.

“We wanted to work with a charity who perhaps do not get as much publicity or coverage as some of the other national charities. Living in Birmingham myself, which is where Troop Aid is based, I had heard of all the amazing work that they were doing for the injured troops.

“These servicemen and women have absolutely nothing when they return and the Grab Bags are such a fantastic and dignified item to offer them. It’s nice to see that Troop Aid is really starting to be recognised; I don’t suppose Prince Charles puts his name to everything that comes across his desk. That just goes to show what great work they do,” said Matt.

Commenting on the partnership with Limagrain, Troop Aid Secretary Pam Sutton said: “We are extremely grateful for the donation from Limagrain; the commemorative flower mixture is beautiful and very fitting. We love working with new companies and working with a company like Limagrain is a new venture for us – I’m very excited.”

For further information, please contact Limagrain UK on 01472 371471 or visit the company’s website www.limagrain.co.uk/wildflowers. You can also follow the company on Twitter: @MM_Seed