Cereals 2025: New royalty collection fee for Group 4 winter wheat
RAGT Seeds Hexton wheat variety © MAG/Emma Gillbard New winter wheat Hexton is the first mainstream cereal variety set for an alternative royalty collection rate, which aims to “level the playing field” for farm-saved and certified seed fees.
The shift will see the British Intellectual Property Office (Bipo) collect farm-saved seed royalties directly from the farmer with payment based on the area sown.
Effectively, this means growers using farm-saved seed will pay a similar royalty rate per hectare as those using certified seed.
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Equal contribution
“By paying more for the farm-saved seed on the Royalty Area Collection system, it provides a unified royalty rate whether you choose farm-saved or certified seed,” says Bipo representative Hugh Harley.
“This means all growers contribute equally to the breeding process within the UK, so money can be reinvested into breeding programmes,” he says.
For a variety such as Hexton, this works out as a £95/t fee for certified seed and £18/ha payment for farm saved-seed, which equates to £90/t based on a sowing rate of 200kg/ha.
This comes at a time when many farmers were turning to home-saved seed as a means of cutting input costs and looking to bolster epigenetics on-farm through regenerative principles.
Hugh notes: “Certified seed of Bipo varieties should now be more accessible, as the royalty is averaged between certified and farm-saved seed.
“This ensures an equitable system where all users of a variety contribute fairly to the breeding of the genetics utilised on farm.”
Breeder RAGT Seeds was the first to launch a mainstream variety into the royalty scheme, highlighting this could well be the future for royalty fee payments.
It is expected that other breeders will follow suit in the coming seasons.
About Hexton
RAGT Seeds Hexton wheat variety © MAG/Emma Gillbard
The new soft Group 4 variety, bred by RAGT Seeds, looks to be a promising variety for next seasons drilling campaign, having gained full UK approval on the AHDB’s 2025-26 Recommended List (RL).
The versatile, high-output wheat performs well across all regions, particularly the North, with yield scores of 105% for the UK and 111% in the North, says Edward Standford cereals and oilseeds product manager at RAGT.
“The variety is the best-performing second wheat on the RL.
“It also performs well as a first wheat and is suitable for light land with an early-drilling date of mid-September onwards, with both distilling and feed market potential,” he says.
Agrii’s seed technical manager, John Miles, says: “Hexton offers good standing ability and disease control, plus a good specific weight.”
“With distilling potential, good northern performance and early drilling suitability, it looks a promising variety for Scottish growers as well,” he says.
The new variety offers a strong disease resistance, scoring 6.7 for septoria and 7 for yellow rust resistance, alongside a 6 for mildew and 5 for brown rust.
Hexton is also resistant to orange wheat blossom midge, which is particularly important as a number of growers are turning away from insecticide use.
Bipo sign-up
Signing up to British Intellectual Property Office (Bipo) is simple and requires growers to fill in one short form to generate a Royalty Area Collection (RAC) number.
The RAC is a licence between Bipo and a farmer who wants to use a protected variety. By signing it, the farmer agrees to pay royalties at an agreed rate.
The licence only needs to be signed the once, as all Bipo varieties are covered by one licence. It remains valid until you stop using the varieties, when it can be cancelled.
Growers must fill in a declaration twice a year for the area sown with Bipo varieties. This can be done online. You will then receive an invoice from Bipo.
