United Kingdom
September 13, 2016
With most of the AHDB’s East / West trial results now published, Belgrade currently tops the list with the highest treated yield for the 2016 harvest, building on the consistently excellent performance that lead to its recommendation for the East and West last year.
Choosing which variety to grow has become increasingly problematic for farmers and merchants due to the plethora of options,” says Elsoms’ Adrian Hayler.” With so many varieties in the medium to late maturity slot, Belgrade provides clear advantages for growers by combining early maturity with outstanding yield, good disease resistance and good standing power,” he said.
Belgrade is a hard feed variety with stiff, medium height straw, similar to Evolution, and was selected for the UK from the Sejet breeding programme in Denmark by Richard Jennaway, Saaten Union UK’s Technical Director. As with all Saaten Unions varieties, as well as going through the official trials process they are also tested at Saaten Union’s plant breeding station at Rosalie, Suffolk.
“We have been particularly impressed by Belgrade’s robust nature particularly its standing powers and strong resistance to resistance to Septoria tritici which has attracted a lot of interest from farmers and agronomists trying to find the most economical way of tackling this margin killing disease,” commented Richard.
“Whilst there have been some comments about Belgrade’s standing power the consistently high performance across a range of official results speak for themselves,” said Richard. “From my experience of growing and developing the variety the current ratings of 6 for standing power, whilst good in themselves, understate the varieties straw strength in my opinion and I would not be surprised to see these ratings improve following this year’s results,” he concluded.
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