Growers throughout Lancashire and Cumbria have an excellent opportunity to earn attractive and secure returns from late-sown winter cereals this season with a novel speciality wheat contract for harvest 2008 from Peterborough-based, Dalmark Grain.

In partnership with leading wheat breeder, RAGT Seeds and one of the country’s major millers, the innovative close-loop contract pays a per tonne agronomy fee at a fixed premium over feed prices for an improved starch wheat that adds significantly to the quality of UK bread grists.

What’s more, the premium is available for a considerably more flexible and less onerous specification than standard bread wheat. And, as the seed remains the property of the breeder, the grower has no seed costs to bear .

“We’ve developed our 2008 contract to supply a type of wheat that helps our milling partner improve bread quality while reducing the need for protein,” explains James Wallace of Dalmark Grain

“In contrast to conventional breeding which focuses on achieving the right protein quality, this wheat is the product of a new approach to breeding for milling quality that improves the functionality of the equally important starch fraction of the grain.

“It offers an ideal opportunity for growers to get themselves involved in a secure, premium food market similar to the rapidly-developing speciality oilseed business,” he insists. “This is the distinctive sort of quality grain market in which UK growers increasingly need to specialise.”

James Wallace points out that all the improved starch wheat crops grown on a number of UK farms and tested to date over the past two years have met the required premium specification, adding that the wheat yields on a par with Hereward and demands no special agronomy.

Well suited to late-drilling, he sees the wheat being particularly valuable for land originally destined for set-aside and after root crops. He calculates that returns are at the level of some of today’s most rewarding Hereward contracts.

Strictly limited seed supplies means Dalmark is offering the new contracts on a first-come, first-served basis, giving special priority to growers in the north west to minimise haulage costs.

Full details are available from James Wallace at Dalmark Grain, Eye, Peterborough on 01733 222391.

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