It’s a grand slam for breeders Limagrain UK as their wheat, winter barley and oilseed rape varieties take leading positions across the 2023/24 AHDB Recommended List.
LG Redwald secures poll position as the highest yielding winter wheat. LG Caravelle is the highest yielding two row winter barley.
Attica joins as the highest yielding oilseed rape variety, with the essential turnip yellows (TuYV) and pod shatter resistance traits.
Setting new standards
LG Wagner is the highest yielding addition to the northern OSR Recommended List.
LG Redwald sets a new standard for high yielding wheats, yielding 107% in the UK, 107% in the east and 109% in the west. As a soft wheat, the variety also offers potential for distilling.
These high yields have been consistently proven across National List trials over seasons, drilling date and soil type, particularly in the second wheat and later drilling situations.
LG Redwald has an excellent disease resistance profile, with very good septoria resistance as well as orange wheat blossom midge (OWBM) resistance.
“It is an exciting variety that should deliver for growers in 2023/24, if supported with good agronomic practise to ensure it meets its full potential on farm, and comes at a time when growers are looking more than ever to maximise output in order to maintain profit in times of increasing costs,” says Ron Granger, Limagrain’s arable technical manager.
LG Caravelle is the highest yielding two row winter barley to join the 2023 Recommended List. LG Caravelle dispels any misconception that two row barleys are lower yielding than hybrids.
Offering UK yields of 106.3% – which is as good as the top yielding hybrid barley variety and yielding 2% above hybrids in the east.
These high yields are backed up by an excellent disease profile, reflected in LG Caravelle’s high untreated yields. LG Caravelle also offers an exceptionally high specific weight for a winter barley, of 71.8 kg/hl.
It is an early maturing variety with stiff straw; both important characteristics for a winter barley.
Attica is a newly recommended fully loaded hybrid with full UK Recommendation. It joins the Recommended List as the highest yielding variety to combine stable high yields with the genetic security of TuYV and pod shatter resistance traits.
Attica has a strong autumn growth habit, offering growers a wide drilling window and a very good disease resistance package.
LG Wagner joins the north Recommended List as the highest yielding variety (108.1%). In 2022 it was the highest yielding variety also offering the security of pod shatter and TuYV resistance. It is a shorter hybrid with stiff stems, combined with good light leaf spot resistance and good stem health.
Tremendous achievement
“This is a tremendous achievement and is the first time that any breeder has achieved this level of success across all of the cropping sectors in the last decade, if not longer,” says William Charlton, Limagrain’s UK marketing manager for arable seeds.
“We believe this success is built on our unique UK focussed breeding approach, which means we are able to select for the UK’s maritime climate from day one in the breeding programme. This allows us to look for consistently high yielding varieties from the very start of our programme, to suit UK growers and end user requirements.”
