“Crop production out of the box” is this year’s motto of the German DLG Feldtage field days. It speaks about the need for a non-standard approach to plant production. What does this mean in practice for companies such as Rapool, Saaten-Union and DSV?
- The DLG Feldtage Field Days take place every two years. This year it falls on June 11-13, 2024.
- Rapool, Saaten-Union and DSV presented their latest breeding achievements at the DLG Feldtage.
- Solutions that are adapted to current field problems prevailed.
- Varieties resistant to virus infection, varieties resistant to new pathotypes of clubroot and intercrop mixtures for intercropping sowing.
Climate change and EU regulations force farmers to constantly modify agrotechnology. The same factors also influence the direction of work of many industry companies. There are no fewer problems in the field, and each company wants to provide agricultural practice with a solution tailored to difficult times. Great hopes for plant protection problems are placed on the breeding of new varieties and the development of new cultivation technologies that minimize the need to use them. Therefore, most breeding companies currently not only ensure that the new variety has a high level of yield, but also protect it against the most significant pathogens through appropriate entries in the genome. What does it look like in the case of companies such as Rapool, Saaten Union and DSV?
Rapool na DLG
Rapool presented a range of winter rapeseed varieties and solutions tailored to the needs and expectations of farmers. He also conducts many interesting field experiments that aim to answer the question of how a given variety responds, e.g. to differences in the level of nitrogen fertilization, reduced planting density, different row widths, or how it compensates for yield after damage caused by pests or other abiotic factors (e.g. after frosts). spring).
The main theme of this year’s DLG days is non-standard plant production
– This technology or program includes all kinds of resistances that we can offer as rapeseed breeding. These include resistance to the most common breeds of cabbage clubroot (…) or to basic fungal diseases, here I am thinking about resistance to cabbage dry rot (…). In addition, of course, resistance to the Velcro yellows virus, which occurs in virtually all Rapool varieties, has now become a standard in our varieties. Rapool varieties with increased resistance ensure high yield stability due to the fact that they are characterized by a multi-package of all kinds of resistance and tolerance to diseases – said Artur Kozera, Rapool, during DLG.
At the same time, Kozera distinguished new varieties that have been prepared for the 2024/2025 season, which contain a number of useful features. This is, for example, the Create F1 variety, which has a gene for resistance to the turnip yellows virus (TuYV) and the RLM7 gene, but above all it is a variety with a new extended resistance to clubroot. To expand the range of breeds, breeders introduced a new resistance trait, CRE1 (Clubroot Resistance Enhanced 1). He also mentioned the varieties well-established in the offer, such as: Jurek F1, Teptetion F1, Crocant F1, Duke F1 and Janosh F1.
50th anniversary of Rapool
At DLG, the company also presented the 50-year history of rapeseed breeding in the form of its historical collection of varieties. The year 1974 saw the establishment of RAPOOL in Europe. 7 years later, a new variety 00 Librador was introduced to the market. In 1995, the world’s first MSL hybrid variety was commercialized – Joker F1. 2001 was another breakthrough in the breeding of this species. The Mendel variety was registered, which was the first syphilis-resistant variety. In 2017, a new specific resistance to Phoma (RLMS) was introduced into Rapool breeding. The following years brought further successes. In 2018, the first hybrids with TuYV resistance were introduced to the market – Prince, Temptation, and in 2019, a new variety with triple resistance with TuYV, RLM7 and PSR genes – Duke F1 (standard in COBORU research) was created. In 2022, the first hybrid with four specific resistances (cabbage clubroot, TuYV, RLM7, PSR) – Crocant F1 – is created, and in 2023, a new resistance to Phoma, the LEP R1 gene – Drifter F1, is put into practice. The year 2024 is another success, because a new variety with resistance to clubroot (CRE1 gene) – Create F1 – was introduced into agricultural practice.
Seed Union at DLG
Saaten Union was present at the stand next to Rapool. Plots with varieties of winter barley, winter wheat and legumes: peas and field beans (including winter forms of both species) dominated.
As Tomasz Szymański Saaten Union said during a tour of the variety collection, many of these varieties not only have a high yield potential, but also have additional features that stabilize the yield over the years.
– These are varieties with resistance to viruses or barley yellow dwarfism, which unfortunately affected barley growers so much this year. We also offer varieties with the Sm1 gene, which limits crop losses caused by the wheat midge. The offer also includes those that have more trichomes due to the allocation of the rye gene, said Tomasz Szymański, product manager for conventional cereals at Saaten-Union.
In this segment, attention was paid to such varieties as:
• Debian winter wheat, which has the Sm1 gene – is resistant to the wheat midge (Sitodiplosis mosellana) or wheat
• Champion, which helped break the yield record in Great Britain.
• Winter barley varieties included in the variety program with resistance to BYDV, such as: Fascination, Sansation (in addition to resistance to BYDV, it also has resistance to barley yellow mosaic virus (BaYMV).
DSV na DLG
DSV at DLG, in addition to typical varieties of crops such as corn or cereals, presented mixtures of fodder grasses and catch crops.
– An example of a good solution is Legu-Hafer-GPS Plus WV. It is a mixture of oats, winter vetch and peas, which can also be sown with multi-flowered ryegrass. When it comes to catch crops, we have the entire cross-section of our TerraLife mixtures, i.e. typical catch crop mixtures, but we also present mixtures that are used for row sowing – said Jerzy Trościanko from DSV Polska for farmer.pl.
An example is the BrassicaPro mixture. This is a mixture for inter-seeding in rapeseed cultivation. It includes: serradella, oilseed flax, Lupinus angustifolius, Alexandrian clover, Persian clover, ramtil.
Rhizotrons with a cross-section of the soil were also presented, showing how the roots of individual species of crops and accompanying plants grow.
