New Limagrain varieties added to recommended list
Three new cereal varieties from Limagrain UK, the country’s leading plant breeder and seed producer, have been added to the 2011 Recommended List, with winter wheats Stigg and Gravitas being joined by Panther spring barley.
Stigg, which Limagrain UK describes as a ’breakthrough’ winter wheat, offers the best-ever combination of untreated yield performance and disease resistance.
A Biscay x LW96-2930 x Tanker cross, Stigg is a high-yielding hard milling variety with an exceptional disease profile, providing a unique opportunity for growers who wish to reduce inputs without significant yield penalty.
At five Recommended List sites in 2010, Stigg untreated out-yielded the co- located treated trial and the variety’s yield response in treated trials exemplified the value of high levels of disease resistance.
Even in a low disease year such as 2010, Stigg demonstrated a 5.2% response, compared with 12.4% for JB Diego, 18.1% for Conqueror and 45.8% for Oakley.
Incorporating germoplasm from Triticum dicoccoides, Stigg is the first-ever variety with competitive yield to achieve an ’8’ rating for Septoria tritici, provides much-needed genetic diversity and enables growers to reduce their exposure to ’risk’. Short in stature, it carries ’9’ ratings for both Yellow and Brown Rust, and achieves ’7’ ratings for Mildew, Septoria nodorum and Eyespot.
Stiff-strawed, Stigg also offers potential for early sowing.
Gravitas, a soft Group 3 winter wheat, has excellent yield potential, with a treated figure 6% above Alchemy.
The variety has excellent disease resistance, particularly to Septoria Tritici and brown rust, and is resistant to Wheat Orange Blossom Midge (WOBM). With a good specific weight and Hagberg Falling Number (HFN), Gravitas is potentially suitable for domestic and export markets, including distilling, bio-ethanol and animal feed.
Panther, the highest-yielding spring barley on the 2011 Recommended List, is of very high quality and clearly different to established spring malting varieties.
Bred by Sejet in Denmark, and marketed in the UK by Limagrain, it carries a specific recommendation for the East of England, the country’s major area for malting barley production.
Delivering very high treated and untreated yields, Panther has very good resistance to mildew, brown rust and Rhynchosporium, together with good specific weight. Short-strawed, it is currently under evaluation by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (IBD), with early testing showing that it has good potential.
A key attribute of Panther is its very good yield stability, which has been clearly demonstrated during the last three years of trials, including 2009 when many other spring barley varieties produced disappointing results
Limagrain UK, the market-leader in cereals, field beans, field peas, vining peas, maize and root/fodder crops, recently re-branded its professional seeds portfolio as ’LG’ (Limagrain Genetics) to reflect the global nature of parent company Group Limagrain’s business.
Group Limagrain, a fast-growing international co-operative group which specialises in agricultural and horticultural seeds, together with cereal products, is the largest plant breeder and seeds producer in the European Union. Employing more than 6,000 people, including over 1200 in research, it has subsidiaries in 38 countries, sells in over 100 countries and has an annual turnover exceeding €1.35 billion.
