Mindful group 4 hard feed was launched in autumn 2023 offering growers an alternative to the later drilling window of its predecessor Sartorial.
With a very different genetic profile Evolution x Costello, new variety Mindful brings the drilling window forward into late September allowing growers to spread their workload during that busy period.
Where conditions require, however, Mindful also performs well later drilled which when coupled with its early maturity and high specific weight, ensures yield is not compromised,
At its inception in 2023 Mindful's presence in the AHDB 5 year early sown trials where all sites were drilled before the 25th September placed its performance in the top 10 varieties out of 56.
Where drilling is delayed or following first-lift break crops Mindful also offers high yield opportunity. Again, its high specific weight (coming from the Costello parent) helps to maintain good sample quality and consistent yield.
Disease resistance
Mindful has evolution as a parent, a Danish variety with a three-way parent cross pedigree. Costello is a second parent from which it gains its high specific weight. Genetic diversity is essential in today's environment with some 70 varieties of winter wheat present in the market from a relatively small number of UK-active breeders. 2024 proved to be a high-disease year for winter wheat and some trial locations had significant pressure from septoria tritic, yellow and unusually brown rust.
At our our AgX trial site in Cambridgeshire, drilled on 2nd October on Fenland, key feed wheat varieties were put to the test. Mindful performed better than some varieties such as Typhoon which are generally recognised as highly resistant varieties.
This emphasises the importance of spreading risk by growing more than one variety and checking pedigree to diversify parentage.
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