The spring bean LG Raptor continues to produce outstanding yields and moves to a P2 rating at 105% over control.
“Yield is the most important factor for spring beans, and is a major focus in our breeding programme,” notes Will Pillinger, pulse breeder at Limagrain UK.
“The success of this approach can be seen as LG Raptor moves closer to recommendation offering extremely high yield potential that could see it outyielding the market leader by next season, he says.
“This year LG Raptor showed excellent uniformity throughout the growing season which has translated into a uniform sample.”
“But high yields need to be backed up by solid agronomics and traits, and LG Raptor does this – it is fairly early to mature, stands well and offers a good disease package including rust. This combination of traits makes it a good variety for the north.”
LG Raptor is suitable for human consumption, fish feed and animal protein markets so offers a range of marketing opportunities.
Tom Barker, pulses product manager for Limagrain UK, sums the variety up.” LG Raptor’s consistent yields and disease resistance package mean it will be taking a big bite into the spring bean acreage.”
Large blue pea LG Aviator also moves to a P2 rating with a yield rating of 103% over control.
Will Pillinger explains that the reason for these high yields is because LG Aviator is a multi-podded variety type.
“For each node that LG Aviator produces, there are three pods. This means there are more pods at the top of the plant rather than spread through the plant, making for a more even maturity with less competition for light – and this is a significant characteristic in building yield.”
Agronomically there is much to like about the variety he adds. “LG Aviator is one of only three varieties listed to offer resistance to powdery mildew. It also offers very high levels of tolerance to downy mildew (with a rating of 7).
“It’s early, and has good ratings for standing ability and straw length (rated 6) – making it one of the best agronomic packages of any other provisionally rated varieties.”
“All of this makes for a very exciting variety and definitely one to watch over the next year as it moves towards full recommendation this time next year,” he says.
Key agronomics of LG Raptor – All information is from the PGRO Descriptive List 2021, available at www.pgro.org
LG Pulse Breeding Aims for 2021 and Beyond
Producing consistently reliable varieties for variable seasons
Increasing resistance to viruses
Increasing pest tolerance
Continued focus on breeding for root rot (Aphanomyces) tolerance
Continued selection for high protein content in peas
Continued investment in Pulses sees two exciting additions to the 2020/21 PGRO Recommended List
Large blue pea LG Aviator and spring bean LG Raptor move from Recommended List trials to a P1 rating.
The large blue pea LG Aviator joins the Recommended List with a yield of 99% over control; higher yielding than market stalwart, Prophet.
LG Aviator has excellent tolerance to downy mildew, with a rating of 7, and is resistant to powdery mildew. It’s early and has good ratings for standing ability and straw length (rated 6) – making it one of the best agronomic packages of any other provisionally rated varieties.
LG Raptor joins the 2020/21 Recommended List as one of the highest yielding spring bean P1 varieties. Its consistently high yields have played out over the last two years of Recommended List trials, yielding 107% of controls in 2019 and 100% of controls for this years’ listing, and it is expected to perform as well or better next year.
LG Raptor is one of the earliest maturing varieties on the RL. This, its short straw and excellent standing power makes LG Raptor one of the best agronomic packages of any spring bean on the market.
Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement Network (PCGIN)
Limagrain has been involved in PCGIN since its creation and has benefited from the excellent research into the genetic improvement of the pulse crop. The next event is on 14th Nov in Grantham and open for registration now…
Limagrain has been involved in PCGIN since its creation and has benefited from the excellent research into the genetic improvement of the pulse crop. In particular, the work on seed quality has helped in colour retention in large blue and marrowfat pea breeding.
The next event is the PCGIN 2019 stakeholder meeting and will be held on 14th November in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
This industry-led stakeholder meeting will present perspective talks on future market opportunities and relevant international developments, within the context of the latest developments in genetic research on UK pulse crops (PCGIN 2018-2023). There will be time for interactions over lunch.
We are very grateful to Agrii and Limagrain for their sponsorship of this meeting.
Programme
10:30 Arrival, tea & coffee
Welcome & introductions (Peter Smith, Agrii; Will Pillinger, Limagrain)
Chair: Peter Smith, Agrii
11:20 Overview of industry-academic exchanges – Marketplace of Ideas (Donal O’Sullivan, Reading)
11:25 The industry perspective, 2019 (12 minutes each speaker)
• Andy Bury, Frontier: Challenges for trading UK pulse crops
• Paul Sheldrake, Healy Group: Rising opportunities for vegetable proteins and UK pulses – Technical & Nutritional Challenges
• Nick Saltmarsh, Hodmedods: Opportunities for existing and novel legume crops in the UK
• Chris Harrison, Novofarina: Food product development and genetic targets in pea.
• The role of Pulses UK
12:45 LUNCH with poster* viewing
Chair: Will Pillinger, Limagrain
13:40 Flash presentations from junior scientists (5 minutes each speaker)
Tom Reynolds, NIAB: Evidence for sexual reproduction of the faba bean pathogen B. fabae in the UK
Gabriel Robinson, JIC: A nutritional review of UK pulses
Vicky Tagkouli, UoR: Selection schemes for small-scale faba bean breeding Jake Moscrop, NIAB/UoCam: Enhancing pollination in the field bean, Vicia faba
Ahmed Warsame, UoR: Identifying and quantifying the most important faba bean seed proteins
14:15 Legume crops and international activities (Pete Iannetta, The James
Hutton Institute)
Curation of legume crop germplasm (Noam Chayut, JIC)
14:40 Perspectives & open discussion on priorities (growers, NFU, Defra,
industry & scientists)
15:00 Wrap up & depart
*Poster presentations:
• Genotyping tools for faba bean (Deepti Angra, Reading)
• Towards saturation mutagenesis in faba bean (Tom Harvie, Deepti Angra, Reading)
• Improved management of viruses (Becky Howard, PGRO; FERA)
• Exploring soybean germplasm (Tony Miller, JIC)
• Nitrate sensors and uptake of nitrate by crops (Tony Miller, JIC)
• Favuleux – developing faba beans as a sustainable source of high-quality protein for food through optimised genetics, farming and processing (Thomas Wood, NIAB)
• Identification of a QTL conferring partial resistance to downy mildew on faba bean, Vicia faba (Anne Webb, Krystyna Gostkiewicz, Jane Thomas and Thomas Wood, NIAB)
A crop of LG Stallion blue peas has yielded a record 7.48 t/ha at 15.04% moisture
A crop of LG Stallion blue peas has yielded a record 7.48 t/ha at 15.04% moisture. The last world record set back in 2017 was also held a crop of LG Stallion which yielded 6.47 t/ha at an average of 15.35% moisture.
Harvested on Saturday 7th September at Worlaby Farm in Lincolnshire, grower Tim Lamyman is delighted with both the yields and quality to come off this year’s pea crop.
“Who would have thought that 2019 would be the year for a world record crop!” he says. “I am absolutely thrilled with the final performance of the peas as they have shown a consistency in biomass through the season – much more so than last year. In places the crop was 6ft tall – and this has obviously translated into yield.”
LG Stallion was the field pea variety of choice, selected for its high yield potential and good standing ability. This is the third year that Mr Lamyman has grown the variety, breaking the world record yield in 2017, and having success again with the variety in the very difficult season of 2018 when it yielded 5.6 t/ha at 14.76% moisture.
The peas follow a second wheat in the seven year rotation which also includes wheats, spring barley and oilseed rape. “The field chosen for the crop is much like last year; a grade 2 chalky loam which offers the potential for well-structured root systems, enabling easier nutrient uptake – which I believe is key to a high yielding crop,” says Mr Lamyman.
“As the spring was so dry, we adapted our cultivations for the peas through an intensive min-till approach which allowed us to create a more level seedbed.”
Before drilling, the field had two passes with a Lemken Terradisc and finished with a Vaderstad carrier (discs and crumble roller), and then it was rolled with Cambridge rollers the day after drilling.
The crop was drilled on 9th April using a Vaderstad Rapid, with the coulters set at a 4-inch row width. The seed was treated with Wakil XL + GPA, with the aim of early downy mildew control from the Wakil XL and better root development, as well as plant establishment with the phosphite-based nutrient GPA.
Established plant populations were 85 plants/m2, he says.
Mr Lamyman believes that detailed and well-targeted crop nutrition is critical to his success. “Leaf samples were taken at four different stages through the crop’s growth cycle in order to identify nutrient deficiencies, to which the relevant products were then applied as required.”
“Foliar applications were similar to those used in 2018. An early insecticide (50 ml Hallmark) was applied for weevil damage. Just before flowering, 2 l/ha of ToPPit +1 l/ha of Rainbow Wave went on.”
ToPPit is a 0-30-40 liquid fertiliser containing phosphorus, potassium and a range of micro-elements. Rainbow Wave contains boron and molybdenum.
“In 2017 we had virus in the crop, and given the high aphid numbers this year we applied Aphox early.”
“At flowering, the tank mix consisted of 280 g/ha Aphox, 1 l/ha X-Stress, 2 l/ha ToPPit, 0.5 kg/ha Signum and 0.5 l/ha CalFlux.”
The X-Stress is used to prevent a plant shutting down its stomatal and root absorption processes under stressful conditions. It does this by enhancing photosynthesis and growth by providing essential micro elements, including the correct proportions of iron, zinc, manganese and copper, as well as magnesium and glycine.
“Two weeks later, another spray containing 2 l/ha ToPPit, 0.5 l/ha CalFlux, 1 l/ha X-Stress, as well as 50 ml/ha Hallmark went on.”
“CalFlux is a key component in any record attempt, such as when the plant experiences stress,” explains Tim. “It will draw calcium from the flowering nodes and this can lead to pods and flowers aborting, and this is exactly what happened in the dry spring.”
“As harvest approached and the weather was very changeable, we decided to apply some Reglone on 23rd August, in case of a delay to harvest, and that helped.”
We are delighted to hear of such a high yield from the pea crop, says Chris Guest – Head of Seed for ADM Agriculture.
Achieving more stable yields with the pea crop is something that we see as highly important for the long term future of the combinable pea crop within the UK farm rotation, he says.
“Over the last two years, we have seen the benefit of micro-nutrients in peas – an important consideration for anybody planning the farm rotation based on a long-term view. We see some of the highest first wheat yields following peas – and as such, the two year gross margin is something that is important to consider.”
“Last year, Tim focussed on achieving the highest yields whilst still maintaining the full green colour which is so important for top grade human consumption quality. However, this year he has pushed for out and out yield,” he says.
“Looking at how this would translate in terms of gross margin based on a worst case scenario of feed quality with current values of circa £180/mt ex farm – this would equate to a gross margin of £915/ha (which includes the additional spend by Tim on the Bionature package).”
“However, if these were suitable for a low grade HC market – this gross margin would increase to £1401/ha (which again includes the Bionature package costs) with a market value of circa £235-240.”
“It’s worth noting that this is the highest gross margin achievable for any crop this season!” says Mr Guest.
“This year LG Raptor showed excellent uniformity throughout the growing season which has translated into a uniform sample.”
The large blue pea LG Aviator joins the Recommended List with a yield of 99% over control; higher yielding than market stalwart, Prophet.
