Antony Ashwell of Old Park Farm, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire is the lucky winner of a competition run by plant breeders Limagrain UK earlier this summer; Mr Ashwell along with his independent agronomist, Matthew Patterson, are heading off on an all-expenses paid trip to Denmark to learn more about wheat breeding and growing from Danish plant breeders, Sejet.
Mr Ashwell who owns and manages 240ha of combinable cropping on the Essex Herts border was thrilled to hear that he had won. âIt is wonderful to have this opportunity to go to Denmark with my agronomist and learn more about Danish wheat breeding and farming,â he says. âRegulations on inputs are much more stringent in Denmark so it will be fascinating to hear more about how farmers manage this and still achieve good yields.â
âWe have around 144ha of wheat in our rotation, both for feed and for milling. During my regular meetings with my agronomist Matthew, we closely review how varieties have performed and what new varieties are worth considering. â
âWe need varieties that yield well but also have good rust resistance, particularly yellow rust so it will be interesting to see how Evolution performs locally this season as it offers all of this on paper,â he says.
Marketed in the UK by Limagrain UK, Evolution was bred by Danish breeders Sejet. The variety represents a step change for barn filling wheats giving growers high yields as well as offering robust disease resistance ratings to give extra management flexibility. This has been demonstrated by this yearâs official harvest results where Evolution has one of the highest treated yields of 105%over control with untreated yields at 125%.
Evolution in summary
- New high-yielding winter wheat from Limagrain
- Nabim Hard Group 4
- High treated yieldâ 106% of control on HGCA Recommended List (provisional data 2010-14)
- Rated 9 against yellow and 8 against brown rust
- Rated 6 against septoria, mildew, and fusarium ear blight
- Taller straw than many Group 4s at 88cm, butâ¦
- Good resistance to lodging
- Good second wheat performance
- Go to: http://www.limagrain.co.uk/products/details/299.html