The new HGCA Recommended List for winter wheat shows eight new entrants making a crowded list of 40 varieties. Adam Clarke and David Jones assess which of the newcomers are set to attract attention.

Skyfall and Evolution are the two favourite new winter wheats tipped for success, with the first a bread wheat with a feed wheat yield and the second a “clean” high-yielding barn filler.

The Group 1 milling wheat Skyfall looks to have all the qualities of a successful bread wheat with no major weaknesses, say seed trade experts.

The variety from French breeder RAGT shows a fungicide-treated yield 4% ahead of the current best breadmaker Crusoe and equal to the most popular feed wheat Diego.

“This is a real step up in yield, and we are expecting a favourable report from the millers. The early indications are of very good quality,” says David Leaper, arable technical manager of farmer co-operative Openfield.

The variety gets a provisional recommendation and if testing by two millers is successful then a full approval will be published in April.

“The variety will help reverse the decline in breadmaking wheats and there has been a lot of interest in the seed,” says David Waite, northern seeds manager at distributor Frontier.

RAGT’s UK managing director Simon Howell says there should be around 9,000t of commercial seed available for autumn 2014 drilling, and then it will be widely available for 2015.

While Skyfall captured the attention of the millers, Barry Barker, national arable seeds product manager at distributor Agrii, sees Limagrain’s Evolution as the most important wheat addition to the list.

Market share

With Group 1 breadmaking varieties only representing a small fraction of the wheat area, Group 4 feed varieties have in excess of 50% market share, he says.

Level pegging in yield terms with Kielder in the barn-filling hard Group 4 feed wheats, Evolution shows better disease resistance ratings.

It is vying to take some area off best-selling wheat Diego, which has nearly 15% of the wheat market, and also Santiago which has about 10%.

Mr Barker says many growers will wait and see how it performs this season in trials before deciding whether to make the switch.

“Kielder didn’t sell as much as everyone had hoped last year, but I expect it to jump up to around 5% of the feed wheat area this year,” he says.

“You would expect the same with Evolution, with some growers making the decision based on the RL table, but most holding off until they see this year’s results,” says Mr Barker.

Evolution’s resistance ratings of nine for both yellow and brown rust will be a key factor in its desirability, and he believes they will be tested this season with yellow rust already appearing in susceptible varieties.

“It has a slightly smaller grain than the other leading feed wheats, but we have learnt that isn’t a significant factor when it is going into a feed pile,” he adds.

In the Group 2 milling wheat category, largely dominated by Cordiale, newly listed varieties Cubanita and Cashel may struggle to find a home.

Mr Barker sees Cordiale remaining the key variety with its current 4-5% market share, but Cashel may have a place as a specialist strong gluten variety.

“Much will depend on how much premium the millers are prepared to pay for it, but I can see it gaining around 1-2% of the market if it takes off,” he adds.

There is plenty of choice in group 3 biscuit wheats, with 11 varieties listed, so newcomers Zulu and Icon may also struggle to make an impact.

In the soft milling Group 4 feed wheat category, newcomers Panacea and Twister face a difficult task to overtake Leeds, which has proved a good and consistent variety for distilling and export.

“Leeds looks like a good variety for the North and will take a bit of beating,” says Mr Waite.

SEED TRADE RATING OF THE NEW WINTER WHEATS

• Skyfall *****
  
• Cubanita *
  
• Cashel **
  
• Zulu ***
  
• Icon **
  
• Evolution *****
  
• Panacea ***
  
• Twister ***

NEW WHEATS (*) COMPARED WITH NEAREST RIVALS

GROUP 1 Fungicide-treated yield

• *Skyfall 102
  
• Crusoe 98

GROUP 2

• *Cubanita 102
  
• *Cashel 97
  
• Chilton 100
  
• Cordiale 97

GROUP 3

• *Zulu 102
  
• *Icon 102
  
• Cocoon 103
  
• Invicta 100

GROUP 4 (soft)

• *Panacea 106
  
• *Twister 105
  
• Leeds 105

GROUP 4 (hard)

• *Evolution 107
  
• Kielder 107
  
• Santiago 106
  
• Diego 102

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