British Society of Plant Breeders adds varieties to its Forage Maize Descriptive Lists

The British Society of Plant Breeders has added nine first-choice varieties to its 2017 Forage Maize Descriptive Lists and 14 new varieties to their Forage Maize for Anaerobic Digestion Descriptive Lists.

The varieties added to the Favorable Sites Descriptive List were Kompetens and Aurelius KWS from KWS; LG30 209 and Reason from Limagrain; SY Feeditop and NordicStar from Syngenta; Spyci CS, Sunshinos and RGT Oxxgood from Caussade Semences; Grainseed and RAGT.

The first-choice varieties listed on the Less Favorable Descriptive List were Reason, Aurelius KWS, SY NordicStar and Sunshinos.

The listings help farmers to choose varieties based on their needs based on maturity level and farm location.

“Reason has the earliest maturing score of the new first choice DL additions with a 35.6 percent dry matter content at harvest,” Joanna Matthews, NIAB TAG’s forage crop specialist, said. “SY Feeditop is the latest maturing at 28.3 percent, the lowest score on the list.”

The varieties listed on the Less Favorable Descriptive List offer a wide variety of maturities for farms in less-favorable areas.

“With the new varieties showing a three week range in maturity scores there is greater flexibility than ever in the variety selection process,” Matthews said. “Growers are looking for highly digestible, good quality silage plus early vigor; often an undervalued character as the ability of a variety to demonstrate vigorous early growth is particularly important in more challenging condition represented by the less favorable list. The new varieties are good all-rounders with yield potentials of between 16.6 and 17.2 t DM/ha, combined with reasonable starch and ME yields. SY NordicStar also shows a very good eyespot resistance profile which can be a valuable asset in susceptible areas and years, as demonstrated in the 2016 growing season.”