Oilseed Rape

An innovative new seeds partnership has been launched by crop production specialists, Agrovista UK Limited in alliance with leading regional seed producers across the country to provide UK growers with a unique combination of national strength and trusted, local service.

Launching the partnership with the introduction of an exclusive new high reliability winter oilseed rape variety from one of world's leading breeders, Agrovista business development director, John Griffiths said: "As part of our commitment to helping growers improve profitability in the fast-changing farming world, we are giving them access to some of the best plant breeding resources available.

"We are supporting these resources with the best possible advice from our dedicated team of local agronomists, together with purpose-built input programmes. And we are doing it through a thoroughly local seed supply service growers can both trust and rely upon; the sort of service that is in such danger of being lost as the UK seeds business becomes concentrated into ever-fewer, more centralised hands.

"Working closely with our seven regional partners - Countrywide Ltd, ACT Ltd, Farmway Ltd, Woodhead Seeds Ltd, Daltons Seeds Ltd, Dennes of Wye and Quantil Seeds Ltd - we are sourcing varieties from leading breeders to meet our rigorous specification for consistent performance and value as much as yield-rating," he stressed.

"We are testing them extensively through the market-leading Agrovista Arable Technology research and trials programme. And we are providing them to growers with the greatest possible flexibility and local traceability.

"To do this, as well as offering extra customer value, we are committed to sourcing as much seed as possible through contracts with our own network of growers."

The first variety on the new Agrovista seed partnership's books is the high output, high reliability oilseed rape, Candice from Monsanto's market-leading European breeding programme.

A candidate for HGCA Recommendation this winter, Candice combines very high gross output, with excellent disease resistance, very stiff straw and exceptional lodging resistance. As a medium biomass variety that is easy to harvest and has shown itself to be highly consistent in extensive testing across Europe, it can justifiably claim to be a true all-rounder.

"We selected Candice because it meets our growers' needs to a T," John Griffiths insisted. "It really has no weaknesses.

"High yields and high oil levels form an essential basis. Add to this the reliability, not to mention management flexibility, that comes from high levels of stem canker and light leaf spot resistance coupled with excellent resistance to lodging, and you have one of the strongest packages in the business; especially with the variety's great establishment vigour and prostrate early growth habit giving the most rapid autumn ground cover from a range of drilling dates and seedbed conditions.

"The consistent performance Candice has shown in a wide range of trials across Europe gives us further confidence in its combination of productivity and reliability. We are proud to launch our new business with the variety, and intend to complement it with an increasing portfolio of equally-reliable cereals, oilseed rapes and other seeds in the near future."