A quartet of exciting biscuit wheats has been added to the new AHDB Recommended List for Christmas
Limagrain UK has a reputation for producing great biscuit wheat varieties, from Claire to more recently Zulu and Britannia. This strong breeding line continues with the introduction of four new Group 3 biscuit varieties for the 2021/22 AHDB Recommended List: LG Prince, LG Illuminate, LG Quasar and LG Astronomer.
These new varieties offer an improvement in yield potential in the biscuit sector, combined with good agronomic attributes of stiff straw, good disease resistance ratings for the rusts, septoria tritici and Orange Wheat Blossom Midge (OWBM) resistance.
“Very importantly, these should not be just considered as solely biscuit wheats, as they all have the additional end market of potential for distilling and two of them also have uks export opportunities on top, for a full marketing outlet opportunity,” says Limagrain’s cereals and pulses product manager, Tom Barker.
“A breeder getting a couple of varieties onto the Recommended List is quite an achievement, but getting four new varieties listed in the Group 3 biscuit wheat category is very unusual, and an achievement that should be recognised,” he adds.
Each variety is different, offering a range of agronomic characters suitable for particular farm situations, to allow for optimum performance.
LG Prince is the highest yielding biscuit variety with distilling, available with a UK yield of 103%, with a very high yield potential in the East, of 104%.
“LG Prince performs well across a range of soil types, and has proven itself to be a very good second wheat, yielding 104% of control, which is significant as this is up there with the best feed wheat yields,” says Mr Barker.
“A short stiff-strawed variety, LG Prince has a later maturity, with good disease resistance for the rusts and septoria tritici, and offers OWBM resistance.”
A biscuit wheat offering distilling and uks export, LG Illuminate is the next highest yielding of Limagrain’s new biscuits, and has done well in the North at 102% of control, and stands out for its consistency of performance over seasons, regions, soil type and rotational position.
“LG Illuminate is particularly impressive in the earlier sowing situation,” notes Mr Barker.
“Its grain quality attributes are similar to KWS Firefly, but with a better specific weight and good sprouting resistance.”
Agronomically, LG Illuminate offers good disease resistance for the rusts and septoria tritici, as well as OWBM resistance.
LG Astronomer offers distilling, backed up by an exceptional agronomic package.
“This is a tall, but very stiff-strawed variety, with one of the best disease resistance packages available on the Recommended List, offering resistance ratings of 9’s for the rusts and an excellent rating of 7.4 for septoria tritici,” he says.
LG Prince
“Combined with OWBM resistance, a very good grain quality and a specific weight of 77.8 kg/hl, these attributes make it a very secure variety for growing on farm with minimum risk.”
“LG Astronomer has all of the desired agronomic attributes associated with the early drilling slot, such as stiff straw, excellent disease resistance, good grain quality and OWBM resistance, and has proven itself in this drilling situation.”
LG Quasar is the second of the biscuits offering both distilling and uks export. It has a grain quality similar to the current market leader in the sector, KWS Firefly.
A taller-strawed variety with good lodging resistance, LG Quasar is suitable for mid to late drilling. The variety is later maturing, with similar attributes to its parent, Cougar. LG Quasars’ disease resistance profile is also similar to the market leading variety KWS Firefly, but with a better brown rust rating which is important for the southern regions.
UK / Regional / Untreated Yield Potential
