‘Join the rebellion’ this season, growers urged

• Late-sown wheat for early harvest

• Strong tillering and spring vigour

• High yield and good grain quality

Growers looking for a strong-performing late-sown winter wheat that can be harvested early have a new available option.

Hard Group 4 variety LG Rebellion builds on many of the agronomic strengths that made KWS Extase such a popular choice on farms – bringing with it higher yield potential and even earlier maturity.

“It’s shown very consistent high yield potential across testing seasons and regions, with additional desirable agronomic characteristics,” says Ron Granger, arable technical manager for plant breeder Limagrain Field Seeds UK.

Early maturity is a particularly valuable characteristic of LG Rebellion, offering growers across the country a way to spread harvest workloads or provide an early entry for following crops, such as oilseed rape.

It has strong tillering ability and spring vigour – and performs well even when sown into November, says Mr Granger. This makes it a good choice for growers looking to sow wheat after later harvested potatoes, sugar beet or maize.

Extended drilling

LG Beowulf remains the highest yielding variety in late drilling situations on the present AHDB Recommended List. But Mr Granger says there is also a good opportunity for extended drilling dates with LG Rebellion.

“It’s so quick out of the blocks regarding its vigour in the spring. It produces strong tillers and responds very well to PGR programmes.” Another key strength of LG Rebellion is its consistently high untreated yield.

Provisional harvest results for 2024 show that LG Rebellion delivered the second highest mean untreated yield over the four years to this harvest (2020-2024), at 117% of control.

This is partly due to a good disease resistance profile, especially for brown rust and Septoria. The variety also offers Pch1 eyespot resistance, which will be particularly important for growers looking to grow it in a second wheat situation.

Grain quality

LG Rebellion also has performed well in second wheat situations, he notes. It’s a KWS Extase derivative with 4% higher yield, offering yields comparable with the best hard feed wheats commercially available.

Grain quality is excellent, offering a high Hagberg and specific weight, although he reminds growers that it is a hard Group 4 feed wheat with ukp export potential, rather than a Group 2 quality wheat like its parent.

“But choosing a variety should never be just about yield,” he adds.

“While yield is important, it’s also important to consider all of the other attributes that a variety offers growers on farm, whether that’s variety positioning, early maturity, disease resistance, or grain quality.”

Factbox: LG Rebellion

• Hard Group 4 feed wheat with consistent high yield potential
• Consistent yield performance over multiple seasons and across regions
• Very high untreated yield
• Good disease resistance profile, including Pch1 eyespot resistance
• Strong tillering with spring vigour
• Very early maturity
• Suitable for drilling from early October onwards
• Excellent grain quality –
  ukp export potential
• A true replacement for growers of KWS Extase and its agronomic type
• Has shown good black-grass competition in external trials

Variety spreads workload on Cambridgeshire farm

Cambridgeshire farmer Michael Brown grew 20 ha of LG Rebellion for the first time last season, utilising its early maturity to help spread harvest workloads on his 600 ha farm.

The variety was one of the last to be drilled before the weather broke in the middle of October last year. Despite that, it was easily the first to reach harvest, which this summer was on 30 July.

“The LG Rebellion established well last autumn, but it was in the spring that it grew away really quickly,” says Mr Brown.

“Throughout the spring, the variety was easily the most forward of all the wheats I grew.”

Mr Brown’s crop  went on to produce his joint highest winter wheat yield last season, averaging 10.5 t/ha, with a specific weight of 78 kg/hl. He is now growing 30ha for seed and 30ha commercially.

“We grow a lot of crops for seed, so generally like to maintain a robust fungicide programme, but it’s good to have the varietal resistance as an insurance policy in the event that the weather prevents us getting on with sprays at the optimum time.”