As part of its pledge to help growers earn a sustainable return from the market seed breeder Limagrain UK has produced two new technical guides to help growers match variety selection to target market.

Entitled ‘Growing for the market’ the guides, which cover spring barley and pulse crops, draw on an up-to-date appraisal of the home and export markets to explain how variety selection can be critical to a securing a good return.

Available free to growers the guides can be ordered as paper copies or downloaded from the group’s website (www.limagrain.co.uk).

Based on sound agronomical and marketing information, the guides are intended to provide growers with the information needed to select the most appropriate variety for the coming season.

Derived from the popular Limagrain individual variety booklets, the latest additions to the series provide a detailed appraisal of the agronomic and marketing characteristics of the leading Limagrain varieties in each group.

The spring barley guide contains a comparison table of varieties which includes regional yield data from the HGCA trials and performance data from the industry-standard Institute for Brewing and Distilling (IBD) performance tests, as well information on variety suitability for a particular rotational slot.

Additional information from Limagrain UK’s own breeder and farmer trials is also included giving readers detail over and above that provided in the Recommended List.

Similarly, the pulse guide draws on performance and agronomy data from the latest PGRO trials and is further supported by data from Limagrain’s own trials.

Limagrain marketing director Lee Robinson described the publication of the latest market grower guides as “valuable tools to help growers exploit the opportunities of a rapidly evolving market”.

“It is critical for growers to have access to all of the available information to match varieties with their situation.  Spring crops will feature heavily this year and it is important that growers select the variety that best matches their region and local market.

“As breeders we are best placed to offer this information using data collected from a range of our own farmer and independent trials, as well as that from official trials performed by the HGCA. These newly designed guides intend to make this process as simple and straightforward as possible,” says Lee Robinson.

The guides are regarded as complimentary to the range of husbandry guides, also produced by Limagrain.

“It is important to understand that the Growing for Market guides will not replace the highly valued and informative husbandry guides that we produce for our market leading varieties; but that they offer an additional source of information for growers,” adds Lee Robinson.