Which champions reign supreme?

摘要

New varieties come and go, but those with clear technological advances can dominate the market for years. We take a trip down memory lane to recall the Claire and Consort of yesteryear Advances in quality wheat breeding have helped change Britain from a country which in 1960 largely depended on North American imports for its breadmaking wheat needs, to a situation at the turn of the millennium where, in a good year, up to 90 percent of bread is produced from UK-grown varieties. Similarly the improvements in malting barley varieties have resulted in a four-fold increase in the volume of beer brewed per tonne to nearly 8,000 litres. Oilseed rape has grown from virtually nothing, to become a major home-grown source of vegetable oil for food and animal feed use. Advances in variety and husbandry techniques now mean that up to 30 percent of the UK wheat harvest is exported along with malting and feed barley, aside from end products such as Scottish whisky to the value of 2.2 billion pound and beer.