mike_farrell

Grew a 46ha block last year. Had great autumn and spring vigour,and looked like it would perform fantastically. Thought it would be a natural step forward from Excalibur but it didn't perform any better in the end and paid quite a bit more for the seed! It did lodge badly in places, and most of the crop was leaning by harvest. Was relatively early to mature which was good to spread the harvest although oil contents weren't quite as high as some of the later maturing conventionals.

Haven't grown it for several years but it always yielded well and provided great grain size and spec wt. Also retained germs well when late cut in the season. Did have a lot of straw, although never went down despite minimal growth regs. Would be a huge asset to a livestock system. Stopped growing it when the market became more limited.

Have grown Concerto for a couple of years for malt and it has always yielded well, managed to hang onto quality (compared to Tipple) longer and also produced a surprisingly larger grain size - hvst '12 giving retentions of 90%+ whereas Tipple grown on same soil and same inputs giving retentions in the mid - high 70's - quite a difference! Just wish it would export off the south coast!