PLANT SCIENCE'S past, present and future is to take centre stage on the NIAB stand at the upcoming 2019 Cereals Event.

Scheduled for June 12 and 13 in Lincolnshire, the event will see NIAB celebrate its centenary year with nearly 120 different crop and variety plots, with current varieties and candidates from the AHDB 2019/20 Recommended List, alongside 'turn back time' reminders of the most popular winter wheat varieties from each decade of the past century.

NIAB’s technical director Bill Clark said: “Our untreated variety demo plots are a top attraction at Cereals, giving growers a head start on their variety selection for next season, with differences in disease resistance and performance between the varieties clearly evident. NIAB TAG specialists are on hand to provide expert, independent advice and comment on variety choice across all cereal, oilseed and pulse crops.

“But this year our variety demonstration has an added bonus. From Squareheads Master to Slejpner, Capelle Desprez to Claire, our heritage variety plots are a superb visual record of how plant breeding has changed the size, shape, yield, quality and agronomy of wheat varieties alongside possible developments in wheat varieties in the near future," said Mr Clark.

"I am sure there will be plenty of growers stopping and reminiscing over these plots. Plus the varieties are part of the fabric of NIAB’s history; each with its own story to tell on how the organisation has influenced either the variety’s breeding, seed production and certification, recommendation or agronomy.”

As part of its Centenary celebrations, NIAB will be announcing two ‘once in a lifetime’ winners of its prestigious Cereals Cup and Variety Cup. This year the NIAB Cereals Cup will be awarded to the most outstanding UK wheat variety from the past 100 years and the Variety Cup to the most outstanding UK variety in any other crop.

The peek into varieties past does not stop there. Visitors can trace the development of yellow rust in the UK over the past 35 years across a range of wheat varieties, including Brigadier, Robigus, Invicta and Solstice, each showing the disease race that, in some cases, shortened their market life. Then there is a look to the future with the NIAB UK Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey team showing how recent developments in pathology research and field pathogenomics are aiding the fight against new races, particularly of yellow rust.