Es Alienor shows top class vigour

The winter oilseed rape variety Es Alienor is demonstrating top class vigour in HGCA RL and breeding trials and is looking on a par with the hybrid rape varieties, reports Neil Groom, Technical Manager for Grainseed.

Neil Groom reports that Alienor, one of the few conventional candidate rape varieties, has been one of the top performers in National List trials and Grainseed are expecting that it will be successful in gaining HGCA Recommended Listing next year. "Alienor is looking very strong in this year's trials with excellent height and good canopy structure. This is excellent news especially when you think of the problems that many commercial crops have had when it comes to establishment and early growth this season."

"There has been some interest in hybrid rape varieties this year, but if you can grow a conventional variety that produces the yield with equal vigour plus even better agronomic characteristics, I think many growers will be tempted to stick with Astrid and Alienor. Both these varieties are low biomass varieties so are less likely to lodge, have less bulk to go through the combine and are quicker and easier to harvest. Both have high disease resistance, with Astrid offering the best Phoma resistance of all current conventional varieties and Alienor having high combined resistance to both Phoma and Light Leaf Spot, (with 8 ratings in the HGCA summary of candidate rape varieties)," points out Neil.

He also says that these two oilseed rape varieties would also complement each other on the farm as they have different maturing times. "Alienor is very early maturing whilst Astrid is a little later. This would help spread the workload at harvest across the farm, which with the high area of crop grown will be a real advantage to busy farmers at harvest."

For further comment and information on either Es Astrid or Es Alienor, please contact Neil Groom, Technical Manager, Grainseed Ltd on 01379 871073 or 07774 720240 or via email at neil@grainseed.co.uk