In the UK, new seed varieties are listed through a process that includes both a UK National List and Plant Breeders' Rights (PBR).
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With building interest in regenerative farming methods, growers are interested in crops that will thrive on low-input sytems and are inherently resilient to climatic stress.
Events organised by regional and local grain networks bring farmers and plant breeders into direct contact with the millers, bakers, brewers and pizza makers that use their grains. It is a world apart from the commodity markets that they are used to dealing with and the enthusiasm and energy can be truly inspiring. Growers will naturally want to change their cropping choices to ones more suited to this sort of market, and become part of their local network. However, this is not simply a case of ordering a different variety from the usual grain merchant, and a number of factors should be considered carefully.
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Heritage Varieties
The choice of what to grow generally falls into two broad categories:
The first are heritage varieties and for a common crop like wheat, this could include well known names like Maris Widgeon or April Bearded.
​The markets for the grain are very important as they are relatively small in terms of the volumes they can accept. We therefore recommend speaking with the potential buyer prior to planting any seed, because if the market isn't secured, the default commodity market is animal feed, regardless of the quality of grain produced.
If buying or sourcing seed for the first time, it would need to be one of the varieties on the conservation list in order for it to be legally marketed.
​​It's also important to remember that although the heritage varieties have a lot of appeal and can produce good quality crops, they will typically yield significantly lower than modern varieties. They are often tall crops, growing anywhere between 1.2m and 1.8 m tall and as such will respond to even modest applications of nitrogen by lodging.
The final note of caution is that like rare breed cattle or sheep, there is a reason why these crops went out of fashion within commercial farming and why a modern variety like Mulika is so prevalent in organic production.
Nevertheless, these varieties and landraces do play a crucial role in breeding new varieties and for that reason it's important that they still are grown and used rather than simply resting in a gene bank.
Population Crops
Heterogeneous or "Population" crops are, we believe, one of the most promising developments within organic farming this century.​
​Led by the pioneering work by Professor Martin Wolfe and Salvatore Ceccarelli, the underlying principle is to mimic the diversity found within natural ecosystems within cropped area of farming . This produces a resistance to disease and environmental resilience by combining the complimentary strengths of different strains and the most well known of Martin's wheats, "YQ", has around 180 different lines within the cross composite population.​
Within the UK, "YQ" was the first to undergo commercial trials for breadmaking and represents the first generation of such crops to be available to interested growers. Work on population wheats has continued, with plant breeders like Ed Dickin and Anders Borgen bringing forward further populations like Oak Farm and Mariagertoba which are proving increasingly popular with bakers and millers.​
Like heritage grains, it is important to understand the market for these grains before plans are made to source seed and plant a crop. Although the markets are developing rapidly, they are still relatively small in terms of volume. WE therefore strongly urge any grower wishing to become involved to first make contact with their local grain network and to find out what potential exists within the current markets.​
Finally, and possibly most importantly, the legislation that currently allows the production and sale of population crops is restricted to "The Temporary Experiment". The legal aspects of this are not onerous but are also quite opaque, but local seed networks can help navigate farmers through the process with confidence.
Seed Availability
All of the local and regional grain networks liaise very closely with each other about seed demand and availability. We will do out utmost best to try to match up growers with available seed and also ensure that the anticipated market demand is a genuine one. In recent years, there has been a significant surplus of organic spelt produced within the UK and we make every effort to ensure that the same problem doesn't happen with Population wheat.
The contact form is a useful way to get in touch and we aim to respond to enquiries as quickly as possible.