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“So, smarty pants, what if we don’t want to record?” Can you really walk through a tent or shed full of rams and pick the ideal one? Let’s say you want to take a few lambs to the mart, so good tops and skin mean more to you than figures. Or, you take a few lambs to the abattoir, so it’s spec that you want. You have Heinz 57 varieties of ewes and distrust boffins. Every tup sold is a product of it’s genetics and... 

A debate on EBVs has been raging in the Scottish Farmer. Accurate, objective or reasoned letters must be too boring to print given the polarity of much seen. The “pros” are characterised by missionary zeal, the “antis” are reactionary and conservative. Who has the moral high ground? Unless you understand BLUP you won’t understand EBVs. BLUP is a statistical model for the prediction of random effects. If you need to know... 

Nearly there! The recommended list is about to be published – still the highlight of the seedsman’s year. While the recommended list has its faults (in common with all trials!) And while we, as breeders, sometimes ‘regret’ the decisions made (see ‘Breeders decisions’ in this blog) it is, at least, an independent source of data. The list gives data over a number of years, and a number of sites across the UK. Varieties that do well, both... 

My first job, and apprenticeship, in Dairy and arable farming is a far cry from a subsequent career in the fitness industry. Sugar beet breeding and production of basic seed, used to make commercial seed, is now the chosen path and once again totally different from previous employment.  I’m lucky to get an insight; there’s not much sugar beet seed grown in the UK. The breeding and seed production year starts end of August/beginning of September,... 

2014 will see the minimum organic content of grass seed mixtures, required to get an automatic derogation rise from 65% to 70%. This implies that there should be reasonable stocks of Organic grass seed available next year although it will be interesting to see whether or not stocks of the right species and the right varieties will be available. In the past couple of years for instance, the lack of Organic Hybrid Ryegrass has meant that it has been... 

Here we go again, the OSR sowing season is complete (at least I hope so!), and we can start thinking about next year. It is now clear that both the area and seed sales this time have been lower than for a number of years – with many estimates of a total area down to about 625000 ha – but considering the problems faced by farmers in 12/13 it’s not surprising that many have looked at land use and decided to change things round a bit. Of course,... 

Harvest 2013 is now well and truly underway with many winter barley crops now harvested and progress has been made with some spring barley and winter wheat. Winter OSR has been the most variable with some farms finished, some not started and some have the 2013 and the 2014 crops both in the ground! I have also have seen some crops of borage in Essex which have been swathed and harvested. Hyvido winter barley has provided some outstanding yields this... 

This is always an interesting time of year for us breeders, with official data finally coming, and the decisions about the future of varieties in official trial being made. It is nice to see your own programme coming up trumps with lines doing very well in national list trials years one and two. The national list trials provide a useful test of a variety, checking for DUS and VCU – that the variety is Distinct, Uniform and Stable, and has Value... 

As someone who has a keen interest in the organic sector of agriculture, I was pleased to see the ‘horsegate’ scandal come to the forefront of the public’s attention earlier this year. This made consumers not only across the UK but the whole of Europe focus on their food and the long chains associated with its production. Although the UK organic market has still shown an annual decline of 1.5% (2012), recent figures from Kantar Worldpanel show...