RAGT Seeds is confident it has another top-quality wheat on the way. The new candidate variety RGT Illustrious has already created a great deal of interest in the end market because of its baking consistency at a range of different protein contents.
According to RAGT’s senior wheat breeder, Célia Bequain, the variety has shown consistent top bread making potential since harvest 2010 when the line was first baked by the company’s independent partners.
“From then on, and despite some very challenging growing seasons, RGT Illustrious has always compared favourably to the control Solstice for both its baking and quality attributes,” she said.
The variety is a candidate for the 2016/17 Recommended List (RL), with a yield challenging Skyfall. Its maturity is similar to Solstice, it has excellent disease resistance profile, as well as the Pch1 eyespot resistance gene.
“The RL trial confirms that RGT Illustrious has very similar quality attributes to Solstice, but we have to keep in mind that those data are from trials managed for yield,” RAGT’s Julie Seekings said. “In our RAGT quality trial network, RGT Illustrious shines with a HFN of more than 300 seconds, even in the 2012 harvest; a protein content that ranges from low 12 per cent to high 13 per cent; and a specific weight of more than 80kg/hl.
“From what we have seen, RGT Illustrious is baking extremely well at all protein levels tested, in-part due to its consistency of rheology and dough strength, this includes very good water absorption properties, with its quality traits RGT illustrious is one of the most exciting milling wheat’s to come out of UK breeding since Hereward.
“Good levels of water absorption are an important character in bread making, as it aids the formation of the dough structure during mixing. This will subsequently help with loaf volume, crumb structure and shelf-life of the product.
For more information visit: www.ragt.co.uk.
