ANGUS Wheat Consultants Ltd ( AWC ), headed by wheat breeder Bill Angus , has launched a completely new web site to highlight the range of its breeding programmes - currently focused on winter and spring wheat and oats , as well as the company ’ s background and objectives .

Bill Angus comments : “ We felt that it was important for wheat breeding to have a strong UK-owned breeder in the marketplace , and we could see gaps in wheat variety development we could fill . A core objective is to increase wheat yields on-farm while maintaining quality and optimising inputs .

“ Cereals are at the heart of our breeding programmes with winter wheats Mv Fredericia and Garibaldi the first two varieties launched under our F1 Seeds banner .

“ Mv Fredericia exemplifies part of our philosophy . We could see the variety playing a strategic role on farm with its

competitive strength in black grass control . In addition , its quality profile made it an attractive variety for a major end user .

“ Garibaldi had been very consistent in the challenging year of 2020 , topping the NL2 trials until a late January trial was thrown into the trials evaluation mix , and although it did not make it as a candidate for the Recommended List , a number of growers and merchants across the country are looking at it compared to their own choices . And this is the real test of a variety - performance on farm .

“ For the future , our winter wheat breeding programme is now mature with a comprehensive set of selection nurseries and trials at our main site in Suffolk , as well as in other key UK cereal growing regions .”

The new AWC web site also features the company ’ s Global Oats ( UK ) Ltd breeding programme which came about as a result of Bill Angus meeting with a former colleague in the South Island of New Zealand who had decided to set up his own breeding programme called Global Oats ( NZ ) Ltd . They agreed to collaborate and work on new oat varieties for both the southern and northern hemispheres .

The potential for oats in the UK is definitely there when we put good inputs into the crop , notes Bill . Oats are seen by many as a low input crop , but this is not so – it is a crop which responds to good agronomy . With a targeted input strategy , yield and quality can be realised .

As with wheat , the oat breeding programme is well under way with varieties currently in the National List system as the company enters higher yielding and better-quality varieties .

Looking into the future , Bill comments whilst there are still some uncertainties over Brexit and how the market will look in the future , the UK has some of the best growers , the best environment and some of the most competitive wheat breeders in the World . There is no doubt that the UK breeding community will rise to the challenge and bring in a range of genetics to meet both growers and end user needs .

“ As an independent British owned company we have grown quickly and have built the facilities you would expect from a leading-edge breeder . For the future , we will continue to invest and develop a strong British brand ,” adds Bill Angus .