Es Alienor proving to be an ideal rape variety for the North (as well as the South)

The conventional low biomass winter oilseed rape variety Es Alienor is proving to be an excellent variety for the North of England and Scotland (as well as the South.

William Brown who farms at West Edington, near Morpeth in Northumberland has been growing oilseed rape for many years and this year is growing the low biomass rape varieties Es Astrid and the candidate variety Es Alienor. "We have been growing Astrid for the past two or three years and have found it to be a good solid performer on our farm. Its low biomass makes it easy to manage and harvest."

"We have tried the new low biomass variety Es Alienor this year and it has proven to be a much more vigorous variety. It has easily withstood the late frosts and snow we have had here in Northumberland. It looks to be one of the varieties to grow in the future, providing it gets recommended this year," he says.

Howard Eke of Horizon Seeds points out that growers in the North and in Scotland are looking for oilseed rape varieties that establish well and are vigorous enough to get through the often harsh winters. "This is why there has been a tendency to go for hybrids in the past. But Alienor is a new conventional oilseed rape variety that can produce the yield with equal plant vigour to hybrids and has even better agronomic characteristics such as very high Light Leaf Spot resistance. Growers will be able to save their own seed and be confident that the crop can withstand not only the adverse weather conditions but also the high disease pressures that we have in the North. It is definitely a win ; win situation."

Alienor is one of the very few conventional candidate rape varieties coming through HGCA trials and has been one of the top performers in National List trials. 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 vigour in both autumn and spring and with a good canopy structure. It is a low biomass variety so is less likely to lodge, has less bulk to go through the combine and is quicker and easier to harvest. It also has excellent combined disease resistance to both Phoma and Light Leaf Spot, with 8 ratings in the HGCA summary of candidate rape varieties, making it worth considering in the North as well as the South," says Neil Groom, Technical Manager for Grainseeds.

He also points out that Astrid and Alienor complement each other on the farm as they have different maturing times. "Alienor is very early maturing whilst Astrid is a little later. This helps spread the workload at harvest across the farm, which will be a real advantage to busy farmers at harvest time."

For further comment and information on the oilseed rape varieties 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