Nabim, supported by HGCA, is hoping to discover the country's best milling wheat grower as it calls for entries to the 2013 Milling Wheat Challenge. Now in its fourth year, the Milling Wheat Challenge has been hotly contested by some exceptional growers according to Martin Savage, nabim's Trade Policy Manager.

He said that the winner will need to show that they are progressive in their business as well as their crop husbandry and that they can consistently grow quality crops of bread-making wheats.

The competition has become established as a way for Britain's flour millers to formally recognise the value of the country's best growers to the processing trade. "We are looking for growers who combine attention to detail with end-customer awareness and business acumen to create a win: win for the whole wheat chain" Martin said.

"Growing quality wheat consistently is a difficult task which requires best practice in growing, storage and delivery to meet the exacting standards of the milling trade."

He added that UK flour millers are committed to working with and taking wheat from British farmers. "In a normal year, close to 85% of the wheat we mill comes from UK farmers. This has probably dropped to around 70% following last year's exceptionally poor harvest, but the trade's intention is to source as much as we can again from domestic growers in 2013."

HGCA is pleased to be supporting this year’s competition as a way of promoting best practice in both the growing and the marketing of milling wheat. Pat Thornton from HGCA said: "Our aim is to find growers who have a good understanding of their end market, their business costs and an ability to reflect both in their marketing of milling wheat.”

The 2013 competition will open mid-February and entry forms will be available via the nabim and HGCA websites.

The closing date for entries will be Friday, 3rd May 2013. The three finalists will be announced at the Cereals Event on 12th June following which on-farm judging of the finalists will take place.

The judges for 2013 will be Martin Savage from nabim, Pat Thornton from the HGCA and Mark Ireland, a Lincolnshire Farmer and former "Farmers Weekly Arable Farmer of the Year".

The finalists, together with leaders from the UK wheat supply chain, will be invited to a celebration dinner hosted in October by nabim at the Ritz Hotel in London where the winning grower will be announced.

The three finalists in the 2012 Milling Wheat Challenge were Andrew Robinson, Farms Manager at Heathcote Farms in Bedfordshire, Andrew Martin of Broadstream Farming in Kent and Mark Boyd of John Boyd Farms, also from Kent. The overall winner was Andrew Robinson.

Pat Thornton said that all three finalists were very good producers. He added that what set Andrew Robinson apart was how he aggregated a series of very small gains from all sorts of areas of his business, "On top of a very strong business, these little contributions and the little tweaks he implemented gave him the edge. He also has a very rational approach to risk management as well as a proactive check-list approach to going beyond the basics of what a miller wants from a grower."

Martin Savage urged growers to give the Challenge a go, explaining: “The Challenge is a great way for growers to engage with the supply chain. UK flour millers remain committed to our farmers despite having to import this year. nabim anticipates more than 80% of the wheat we mill will come from UK farmers again after the 2013 harvest, provided sufficient quality crop is available.”

To find out more and to enter go to: http://www.nabim.org.uk/challenge or www.hgca.com