While British farmers should be proud of consistently producing over 80% of the nation's milling wheat needs, that proportion could fall if they do not stay abreast of market requirements and respond to them, says Charlotte May, Policy Adviser for the National Association of British and Irish Millers (nabim).

They will get an excellent chance to do this if they take the opportunity to "Meet The Miller" on the nabim stand at Cereals 2005, which will be held at Rectory Farm, Guilden Morden, in Cambridgeshire on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th June.

Stand visitors will also be able to take plot tours, run in conjunction with the HGCA, on which they can receive a full update into the latest agronomic information available on individual varieties. Millers will also be on hand to tell them how they use each variety, and provide the latest commercial and industry advice.

As well as discussing their requirements with wheat buyers, stand visitors can arrange mill visits which will enable them to increase their knowledge further, as well as seeing a range of loaves made with individual wheat varieties, which will highlight why Grade One and Two (milling wheats) make excellent bread, and why Grade Three (biscuit and cake making varieties) and Grade Four (feed wheats) do not.

"There are big differences in the protein and gluten content between a Group One and a Group Three wheat variety, and this affects how they perform, as we will demonstrate at Cereals. The best quality milling wheats should produce a light, even structured loaf, while the others should look very different".

She says it is essential that farmers remain aware of millers' changing preferences for wheat varieties, and make their growing choices in this light. To help farmers, nabim publishes a wheat varieties guide every year, with 2005's version being available on-line (www.nabim.org.uk) or from the organisation's stand at Cereals 2005:

"We need farmers to keep growing Group One wheats for bread-making, as well as continuing to grow a good spread of Group Two varieties, as these are needed for a huge range of products. There are some 400 different types of flour that are produced by gristing and blending, and these go into thousands of products that millers contribute to or make themselves. Stand visitors will be able to sample one of these - as we will have some freshly baked loaves on stand for them to sample.

"Cereals 2005 gives farmers an unrivalled opportunity to talk directly to millers and to find out more about their needs. Many farmers are already asking more market-orientated questions than a few years ago, but they need to keep asking those questions because the answers will change".

* Cereals 2005, incorporating Sprays & Sprayers, is organised and presented by Haymarket Land Events on behalf of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. It is held in association with Farmers Weekly. Principal sponsor is HSBC.