Cereals 2024 expected to have largest ever agronomy zone

Visit the Farmers Guide online Cereals 2024 Showcase for top exhibitors to visit.

Cereals 2024 will take place on 11th and 12th June at Bygrave Woods, Newnham Farm in Hertfordshire. 

Will Davies, farming consultant at Ceres Rural, who has overseen the plots’ agronomy and management, said they are “looking well”.  

“The site has coped well with a challenging growing period, which is a credit to site manager Jonathan Backhouse, NIAB’s Shawn Coleman and our host farmers Alex Farr and Edward Wainright Lee. 

“The plots will allow visitors to see first-hand varieties, nutrition, biological products and inputs, as well as new innovations and niche crops. And there are more exhibitors than ever – it’s a great opportunity to see all they have to offer in one place,” Mr Davies added. 

Ceres Rural will be on hand to guide visitors though the event’s popular winter wheat and barley feature, as well as offering independent advice to visitors.  

The company’s farming consultant said: “It’s great to be involved in this area of the show again. It gives us the opportunity to meet more people and hear their experiences of the year so far.” 

The visitors will be able to meet a range of exhibitors who will talk about their latest crops and share some valuable advice. 

KWS

KWS will be showcasing four new winter wheat candidates and three new winter barley candidates, as well as new technologies in sugar beet breeding. 

Selected from the breeder’s 10-strong winter wheat candidate list, KWS Vibe, KWS Arnie, KWS Solitaire, and KWS Mongoose will be representing groups one through to four, respectively.  

KWS Solitaire will put confidence back in the group three market with its Cougar-free parentage and respectable septoria score.  

For bold yields, KWS Arnie will pique interest as the first KWS Extase cross, while KWS Mongoose offers the group four market the perfect combination of specific weight, yield, and orange wheat blossom midge (OWBM) resistance.  

The breeder will also have a sugar beet offering, with a new cercospora-tolerant variety, Chyma KWS.   

“Listed by the British Beet Research Organisation, Chyma KWS has a good all-round disease package and a high yield (101% of controls).”

“Alongside our other newer technologies – Conviso Smart and Yellow Virus tolerance – the cercospora technology shows our efforts in breeding, and our commitment to the sugar beet market,” said sugar beet agroservice manager Martin Brown. 

NIAB

Putting plant science into practice, NIAB will feature over 20 different crop species across its 11 crop plot features. 

NIAB’s head of communications, Ros Lloyd, said: “Cereals is a great opportunity to share the breadth of our research and practical farm innovations with growers and agronomists. 

“As ever, we will have a team on hand to answer questions – be that on variety choice or regenerative principles, through to alternative cropping options, input strategies and so on.” 

On the agenda will be the winter wheat and barley variety choice feature, with 32 listed and candidate varieties. 

The 20m-long, 2m-deep soil hole will demonstrate the science behind regenerative agriculture – featuring a range of ‘sustainable’ crop options, including wheats and hybrid cereals, herbal leys and legume mixes, as well as grass and clover, and grazing mixes. 

Cropping options in the face of climatic pressures will also be demonstrated in NIAB’s bi-cropping and protein crop features, including lupins, peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas, as well as a wheat blends and novel crop showcase. 

Senova 

Having had its biggest autumn for launching new varieties, Senova is focusing its spotlight on what is coming in the winter wheat and barley market. 

Taking a top spot on Senova’s plots is the breeder’s group three winter wheat newcomer, Almara.  

Recommended for the northern region, where it has given its best yield performance, it is also suitable for distilling, and meets biscuit quality requirements for both the domestic and export markets.  

Three new hard feed winter wheat candidates will also be on offer – Riley, Rufus and Memphis – all high yielding (105 to 106% treated – UK).  

Barley growers will also want to check out the winter feed barley candidates, Organa and Kitty. 

Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) 

With six plots of Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) options on display at this year’s event, Mark Taylor, senior CSF officer for Yorkshire and Humber, said that Cereals represents an “invaluable opportunity” to demonstrate SFI actions to farmers. 

He added: “We’ll be on hand to talk about the management of these different options, the application, what they’re worth to farmers, and how to integrate them into farming systems.” 

AminoA 

With more growers looking to reduce artificial inputs like fertilisers and chemicals, the biostimulant manufacturer AminoA will once again focus its plots on high health, low input.  

Oilseed rape (Ambassador), tricticale (Fido), and winter wheat (Typhoon) will be used to demonstrate how its highly concentrated amino acid biostimulants can improve soil microbiology, plant health, productivity, and nitrogen efficiency. 

A standout feature of AminoA’s plots are the nitrogen strategy blocks, which comprise blocks of each crop, treated with three nitrogen application rates, no artificial fertiliser, 70kg/ha of soil-applied urea and 150kg/ha of soil-applied urea, each treated with a 100% natural L-a amino acid and nutrient biostimulant.

Agrii 

For many farmers, reliable varieties sit outside of the RL, and Agrii will be reflecting this in its wheat and barley plots, alongside a display of cover crops and environmental mixtures. 

Selected off-list will be two groups of four winter feed wheats, soft wheat LG Tapestry (Limagrain) and hard wheat Fitzroy (Secobra).  

“We wanted to include them in our Cereals offering because, from a sustainability angle, they are interesting in their disease resistance. 

“Fitzroy has a really high septoria score (7.4 advisory), which is particularly important in the west of the country,”” explained crop inputs specialist, Poppy Bunting. 

Rothamsted Research 

Rothamsted Research will be present with plots and scientists showcasing some of the institute’s latest research in crop breeding, gene editing, pathology and regenerative agriculture. 

Bridging the gap between research and commercial farming, Rothamsted will demonstrate its work with camelina to produce a plant-derived source of omega three long-chain fatty acids.  

It will explore findings from its UK-first trials of low asparagine wheat, developed using a new genome editing technique.  

Elsoms Seeds

Returning to Cereals after a five-year hiatus, Elsoms’ crop plots will feature a scope of new varieties, including the newly recommended group three winter wheat Bamford, said Elsoms’ marketing and communications manager Grant Hawkins.  

“It’s a leading variety on the RL this year and it’s a big deal for us, and being in group three, quite a big deal for the industry. 

“We’ve also got our soft group four Blackstone, which is newly recommended. It’ll grow well throughout the UK but is particularly suited to a northern area, and has malt distilling qualities – so good market potential.” 

Elsoms will also be looking to engage with growers and agronomists about responsive rotations – a principle which sees variety selection based on key focuses like climate change, reduced inputs, diversity and so on.  

Corteva 

Corteva will be focusing on biological products and crop protection technology.  

Corteva will also have plots demonstrating its biological products; BlueN – a biostimulant containing free nitrogen-fixing bacteria – and Kinsidro Grow – a foliar biostimulant combining humic and fulvic acids with key nutrients to increase chlorophyll and improve photosynthesis.  

Category marketing manager John Sellars said: “We have these plots at Cereals to get the conversation going around plant health and resilience, the opportunities from biological products, and how they differ from conventional crop protection. 

“And we can demonstrate that response on these plots – having crops at the event gives context to what we discuss.” 

Corteva will also be unveiling its latest technology in crop protection, which undoubtedly will be a huge move for the industry.  

NPZ UK (LSPB) 

Oilseed rape (OSR) sowing times and pulses will be a big focus for LSPB at this year’s Cereals, with a special guest feature and crop specialists on hand to help growers put their finger on the pulse. 

To support these technical sessions, LSPB has comparison plots of its new RL candidate variety, Maverick, as well as late-sown and standard plots.  

The team will also be showcasing a new spring green pea variety, Pangea.  

Find out more about NPZ UK‘s involvement at Cereals 2024.

Amstel Agro 

Amtsel Agro will be showing visitors how its range of mineral fertilisers and biostimulants can help improve crop resilience.  

A highlight of the firm’s crop plots is its trial work, said Dan Gulliver.  

“We’ve got side-by-side treated and untreated plots of wheat and oilseed rape, demonstrating the benefits of our liquid product SF-Y, which contains the most bioavailable form of silicon – orthosilicic acid.  

“Silicon is an important element for plant growth and health; it assists nutrient uptake, frees up phosphorus in the root zone, strengthens cell walls, increases photosynthesis and resistance to pests, diseases and climatic stress.  

“But frequently it is included in products as potassium silicate, which isn’t very bioavailable to the plant, and therefore not as effective,” he added. 

Grainseed 

Displaying conventional OSR varieties that lend themselves to farm-saved seed, a highlight of Grainseed’s offering will be its big plot of Pinnicle.  

“It’s the highest rated conventional variety on the RL, with good disease resistance and stem strength.  

“It was bred in the UK by Mike Pickford and is perfect for our conditions – he breeds for big pods with big seeds. United Oilseeds will also be exhibiting and able to give growers an independent view of varieties,” said seed specialist Ed Stanford. 

To showcase breeding progress, Grainseed will also have a plot of an up-and-coming unnamed variety on display.  

Limagrain (LG) 

Next-generation crops and high-yielding varieties are a key focus for LG at this year’s Cereals.  

It has seventh-generation hybrid OSR varieties on display, including newly-recommended LG Armada and LG Academic, said arable development officer, Curtis Scarborough.  

The breeder will also have the group four hard wheat, LG Beowulf on its plots, which boasts a new RL title.  

For those looking at early drilling, LG Typhoon will be one to consider.  

Arable technical manager Ron Granger added: “Growers aren’t going to hold back this coming autumn with drilling, so we really see this variety coming into play there. 

“Our portfolio at Cereals is strong. We’ve got very erratic weather and conditions to produce crops under now. So the key thing  is having crops which are consistent under that pressure.” 

Cereals Event will take place on 11th and 12th June 2024 at Bygrave Woods, Newnham Farm, Hertfordshire, SG7 5JX. 

Visit our Cereals 2024 Showcase here.