Limagrain UK has re-branded its professional seeds portfolio as ’LG’ (Limagrain Genetics), reflecting the global nature of its parent company’s business.
Replacing the former Advanta, Nickerson and Sharpes ranges, the LG brand now encompasses varieties of cereals, maize, oilseed rape, peas and beans, vining peas, sugar beet, forage, root and leaf varieties, together with environmental and conservation crops.
The country’s leading plant breeder and seed producer, Limagrain UK is the local agricultural and amenity seeds operating company of Group Limagrain, a fast- growing international co-operative group which specialises in agricultural and horticultural seeds, together with cereal products.
The largest plant breeder and seeds producer in the European Union, and the fourth largest in the world, Group Limagrain employs more than 6,000 people, including over 1200 in research, has subsidiaries in 38 countries, sells in over 100 countries and has an annual turnover exceeding €1.35 billion.
Owned by its 3700 farmer members, the cooperative has achieved its strong position in the global agricultural industry by focusing on creating varieties which meet the expectations of farmers and growers, agri-food industrialists and consumers.
Limagrain UK has an unrivalled heritage of seedsmanship, combining more than 24 famous names such as Nickerson, Sharpes, Advanta, Hurst, Milne Masters and Sinclair McGill.
Formed in 2005 following the amalgamation of Nickerson, Advanta and Innoseeds, Limagrain UK embarked on a five-year, £3 million investment programme which has modernised the company’s systems and production facilities, together with its breeding and technology systems.
Due to be completed this year, the investment has ensured that Limagrain UK is well equipped for the future, structured to create and deliver ever-improving genetics for the British agricultural and amenity industries.
In the UK, Limagrain is the market-leader in cereals, field beans, field peas, vining peas, maize and root/fodder crops, second equal in amenity grass and third in sugar beet and agricultural grass. With the resources to continue to develop innovative new varieties, the company is intent on maintaining its position as the UK’s leading plant breeder and seed producer.
A key component in its strategy is an extensive Research & Development programme, the largest of its type in the UK.
This includes plant breeding and testing operations at four main locations in the UK - Docking in Norfolk (peas/beans and fodder crops), Rothwell in Lincolnshire (barley/oilseeds), Witham St. Hughs in Lincolnshire (maize and grasses) and Woolpit in Suffolk (wheat). The company invests over £3.5 million annually in these R&D sites, which are responsible for more than 65,000 trial plots covering 250 hectares at 66 locations throughout the UK.
Early adoption of technology, from advanced trials design, to doubled-haploids and molecular biology, enables Limagrain UK to produce ever-better varieties and achieve step-changes in performance.
The development of genome mapping is a key area of the company’s R&D activities which is helping to make current programmes wider in their scope and more precise by greatly increasing the plant breeder’s understanding of cereal genetics, together with the structure and behaviour of genomes.
Genetic markers, for example, make the selection process more precise, efficient, quicker and independent of the outside environment by allowing plant breeders to directly examine plant DNA in the laboratory and then use this information to determine whether desired traits are present in a new variety at an early stage.
In addition to significantly reducing the average time taken to breed new varieties and for them to reach the farmer, these techniques play an essential role in ensuring good end-user grain characteristics and farmer-friendly agronomic performance.
Currently, Limagrain UK’s portfolio of ’near-market’ developments includes Stigg, a break-through winter wheat which offers the best-ever combination of untreated yield and disease resistance.
The first variety with competitive yield to achieve a rating of 8 for Septoria tritici, Stigg is a high-yielding hard milling feed type which combines very stiff straw with high levels of disease resistance, offering the potential for early sowing and for growers to reduce inputs without significant yield penalty.
The exceptional spring malting barley Concerto, which gained full approval for brewing and malt distilling from the Institute of Brewing & Distilling in 2010, has subsequently led to the development of four other potential Recommended List varieties. Concerto x Quench crosses, they combine the former variety’s quality with the latter’s disease resistance, and all are 3%-4% higher yielding than Concerto.
The company’s ’near-market’ advances in other crops sectors include Madrid Amenity Perennial Ryegrass for winter sports pitches, Ambition, an early (9) silage maize with excellent starch and dry matter yields for higher milk production and improved profitability, together with Gowrie, a new swede which generates an additional 2.1 tonnes per hectare of dry matter yield worth £229/ha.
Limagrain’s high level of investment in R&D will help farmers to meet the agricultural demands of the future.
