South East: Most crops now either been desiccated (Catalina/Castille) or await desiccation (NK Bravour/Expert) early next week.
Varieties for harvest 08: Acreage will be dominated by Catalina, NK Bravour, Castille and some Komando (the latter replacing Expert).

South West: Crops now ready for glyphosate desiccation however weather is keeping us off. Swathing will start middle of next week unless weather is really wet and likely to damage rape in the swath.
Varieties for harvest 08: Grace, Astrid, NK Bravour Castille. Some Excalibur and PR403D, a semi dwarf hybrid.

East: Desiccation happening week beginning 2nd July.
Varieties for harvest 08: For next year - Multitude of very similar yielding varieties to chose from. Phoma and lodging resistance as well as oil content tend to be major factors in Norfolk.
Castille will remain popular due to lodging resistance, yield and shortness.
Lioness: similar stiffness and yield to Castille with good oil content.
NK Grace and NK Bravour similar characteristics to Lioness of stiffness and high oil content.
Expert remains popular. Good yield on some farms. Visually bold pods. Stiff and Phoma resistant.
Es Astrid has similar characteristics to Expert with very good phoma resistance but lower oil content and yield.
Komando - Not on recommended list but pushed locally. Claims better yields than any other on list (106%) combined with OK straw strength and very good oil (45.6%) and very good phoma resistance (8). Some farms will be trying some. If it lives up to the hype and doesn't fall down, it will be a major variety in the future.
New entrants on list ie Hornet, Excel and Tuscan - Fail to see any benefits over other varieties. Eg Excel has potentially very good phoma resistance but it isn't much good if it falls down. Hybrid varieties - Less grown. Low seed rates can be worrying particularly in slug prone fields.

East Midlands: Crops on the whole just starting to turn with seed in middle pods of main raceme just showing odd light brown one. Some crops on lighter soils more forward with seed showing more brown. Desiccation probably about 1 week or so away depending on weather.
Varieties for harvest 08: Castille and ES Astrid and Expert will figure with Excalibur as a hybrid choice.
Lioness will fall more I think due to its trace element susceptibility.
Some Catan being tried on a club root field as some tolerance has been seen in the variety - will let you know if so in the autumn!
ES Astrid may also have some tolerance - I note the advertising blurp for Astrid at present claims some club root tolerance.

West Midlands: Some crops are beginning to turn and applications of glyphosate are being planned for next week, although with the catchy weather many crops will be left to ripen naturally.
Varieties for harvest 08: Castile early sown.
Lioness later sown, try some Komando on larger acreage farms.

North East Its difficult to identify any specific varieties that have lodged, as the aspect and soil type of the fields seems to be greater factor. Most crops have been pressed down to some extent, but only a few to a level that is going to create harvesting problems.
Varieties for harvest 08: Generally, we are looking for varieties that stand well and give high yields of seed and oil. Virtually all the acreage will be made up from Lioness, NK Bravour, Excalibur and Castille.

South East:
Crop development: All crops now at latter stages of grain fill - with most advanced crops ranging from milky ripe (Solstice and Xi19) to some crops of Soissons now being at milky/cheesy ripe. With continually damp and cool conditions of last 2 weeks, crop development has slowed slightly. A hot 10 days or so will see wheat being cut during second half of July. In general, most wheat crops have stood up to weather battering of last few weeks remarkably well (hopefully not reflecting a lack of yield potential!) with very little general lodging evident apart from headland overlap areas - only variety that looks vulnerable is Einstein, particularly on lighter/looser soils, where leaning is noticeable and is largely related to an almost complete absence of crown roots. Crown root development is poor in many wheats this year, and is related to crops bolting in April combined with dry soils and lack of N availability. Crops treated with PGR in March/early April are better rooted.
Varieties for harvest 08:
It would appear that overall variety choice is not changing dramatically for next year, with only Claire likely to increase its share of soft wheat area at expense of Robigus.
The hard feed acreage looks set to be dominated by Alchemy again largely because, apart from brown rust problems this year, it has performed very well in South in last two years and remains a good choice to spread the Septoria risk (still the No.1 wheat disease) - other class 4 wheats being considered are Humber, Gatsby and Gladiator.
Milling wheat acreage will be largely split between Solstice and Xi19, with Soissons for later sowings and Einstein in second wheat slot.

South West:
Crop development: Crops up to soft cheese ripe. We have escaped the worst of the storms. Lodging in wheat is minimal so far although previously mentioned Einstein weak rooting is still a worry. Signs of takeall now showing up in second wheats.
Varieties for harvest 08: Early drilling Claire and Humber. Alchemy drilling date pushed back to reduce brown rust inoculum winter build up.
Millers: mainly Solstice with a little Hereward mainly on very low potential ground. Mallacca area likely to reduce.
Gatsby will figure for off lying areas where intensive management difficult. Little change on last year.

East Midlands:
Crop development: Crops now GS70+. Most crops standing but areas of fertiliser overlap/prone to squally winds and exceptional rain are lodged, but situation is not serious. Generally T3 triazole has held yellow and brown rust at bay and crops now generally past stage where any damage may be done.
Varieties for harvest 08: Main ones will be Solstice, Einstein/Cordiale with Alchemy holding some acreage. I feel Robigus will show a drop.
Gladiator may rise - is a good all round feed with good arable silage potential.
Some Humber being grown and some Mascot but supplies of these low.
Zebedee may figure for some looking for a group 3 variety in place of Robigus.

West Midlands:
Crop development: Torrential rain fell on Tuesday 19th and Monday 25th June the second wave has knocked down the early sown forward wheats that are at their heaviest. Have seen Alchemy and Einstein 'ruffled' and even where PGR applied there is some lodging. All the lodging is at the roots not the stem.
Varieties for harvest 08: Group 1 Solstice.
Group 2 Battalion as a second wheat drop Einstein.
Group 3 None.
Group 4 Humber early sown first wheat or on very fertile land as a 1st or second wheat.
Alchemy as a mid September first wheat. Gladiator as a first or primarily a second wheat. Oakley on light land?

Eastern Counties:
Crop development: Little lodging. Einstein and Gladiator showing some root lodging but not enough to abandon varieties.
Varieties for harvest 08: No knee jerk reaction. Alchemy still be grown but with change to fungicide programme - no longer a 'cheap' variety. Acreage of Robigus to drop but that would have happened anyway because variety is too temperamental.
Einstein and Gladiator good consistent second wheats.
Solstice will depend on perception of premium.
Humber now sold out with Oakley close behind. Malacca out.
Niche market for Wizard. Benzine (Rocky) - Looks promising with yield as Robigus combined with good disease scores and stiff straw.
Small amount of odds and sods - Glasgow, Zebedee, Deben.

North East:
Crop development: Well its been a week like we have never known before. All rainfall records have been broken since records began about 150 years ago for this area. 125 mm recorded in 36 hours. We have a few whole fields of wheat totally submerged and there must be vast areas of flooding that we can't see because of the height of the crops. The effect of the flooding is impossible to assess yet, as much depends on how quickly the levels subside and whether we get more heavy rain. Despite the deluge there are surprisingly few crops lodged. Lodged crops are generally first wheats and they include Robigus, Welford and Alchemy which were early drilled and in exposed fields. It is estimated that less than 10 % of the wheat crop is lodged.
Varieties for harvest 08: Most growers are looking for varieties that have good standing ability, yield well and also have a good disease resistance profile. Few are looking for any particular quality. The few that are looking for a Group 1 wheat will grow Solstice.
The favourites for the first wheat slot are Humber, Timber, Robigus and Nijinsky.
Other wheats for second and continuous are Gladiator, Alchemy, Glasgow, Einstein, Cordiale and W130 (Benzine). Humber and Timber will also be chosen for this category.
Despite the rust problems with Robigus and Alchemy, I am advising that they are still as good varieties as they were in previous years as they have always had these susceptibilities and next year may not reproduce the same problems. It is very rare for brown rust to be a problem in this area.

South East: All crops now approaching maturity & await the combine in early to mid-July.
Varieties for harvest 08:
6-row feed area will be dominated by Sequel & Boost, with some giving the 2-row Suzuka a go, while malting acreage will again be mainly Pearl with small area of Flagon/Cassata. Winter barley acreage will increase next year.

South West: Earliest crops approaching harvest. Grain size looks good but head numbers still too low after April drought. Yield potential likely to be reduced. Very little winter barley has lodged as too much biomass reduction in April and crops light.
Varieties for harvest 08: Carat and some Retriever (concerned about Screenings and low specific weight) on BayMV land.
Saffron the mainstay on non infected land. Likely to be all feed.

Eastern Counties: Typically at GS 63-65, mid flower. Low disease levels.
Varieties for harvest 08: Norfolk is a majority malting county with 2 varieties dominating the market: Pearl - Standard variety, watch the mildew. Straw stiffness means this variety will continue to be popular next season.
Flagon - better yield than Pearl but lodging risk is a major problem. Commonly lodging in patches this season.
Cassata - may increase with provisional approval but it is disease prone to mildew and net blotch. BaYMV resistance is not an issue in this area.
Feed Varieties: Carat - popular variety due to standing power, low screenings and early harvest. Yield falling behind newer varieties.
Saffron - main alternative to Carat with a better yield. Stiff straw. Low screenings. Watch mildew.
Retriever - good yield but straw strength and screenings are a worry.
Sequel - standard 6 row. Good yield and standing. Disease scores OK.
Pelican - looks interesting. Very good yield. OK stiffness. Good disease profile. Looks particularly suited to lighter soils.
Hybrid 6 rows - Very little grown.

Midlands: Crops turning and need some sun now. Some lodging on last week but generally crops leaning rather than lodging.
Varieties for harvest 08: Feed Saffron, Carat, Suzuka, (Retriever home feeders only due to relatively poor bushel weight).
Malt: Flaggon or replace with Casada as it is better standing and now has IOB approval.

North East: Grain fill continues with crops at soft dough stage now. A few small areas lodged, but generally crops standing well.
Varieties for harvest 08: Saffron looks very good at this stage, but it is not tolerant to chlortoluron, and with the new approval rates for IPU my advice for this area is to grow a variety which can be sprayed with chlortoluron. Consequently, Carat will be favourite. It has done exceptionally well in this area over several years and it has the added advantage of being resistant to Barley Yellow Mosaic Virus. Retriever looks good on paper, but there are doubts over its standing ability so only a small acreage is likely. There will also be small acreage of Flagon and Pear, and maybe some Cassatta.
6-rows have declined in popularity recently, but there will still be some Pict, which has been very good, and a lesser acreage of Siberia.