A new milling wheat variety has entered the Recommended List, offering high treated and untreated yields alongside all-round high quality attributes and agronomics. CPM investigates if this new vibe could reinvigorate Group 1.
“Group 1 wheats are the backbone of UK bread making flour.” JOE BRENNAN
By Melanie Jenkins
Those keeping an eye on the milling wheat sector may have noticed a new player on the team which could provide UK growers with renewed vigour, but what sort of vibe will the variety bring to the field?
New Group 1 KWS Vibe brings genuinely improved performance to a sector which has seen few new additions in recent years and is the new ’protein’ banker for the UK, believes KWS’ Olivia Bacon.
Vibe has the highest overall protein production potential on the latest AHDB Recommended List, slotting in just behind KWS Zyatt for yield, she says. “The variety has the best combination of protein and yield of all Group 1 varieties, but with a much better plant package for growers than previous varieties.
“Its yield of 98% of controls combined with a milling specification protein content of 13.2% sets it apart from its competitors, as does the most comprehensive agronomic package of all the key Group 1 players.”
Cefetra’s Mary-Jane Bridgford agrees, noting that Vibe’s combination of yield, grain quality and disease resistance along with its suitability across all regions, is providing growers with a new and appealing option. “It’s been a long time coming but the variety is certainly living up to its name so we’re really excited about it.
“In recent years we’ve seen some strong additions to the other groups on the RL which has widened the gap between the Group 1 varieties for both yield and disease resistance. So as an industry, we were keen to see a new Group 1 variety like Vibe that gives both excellent milling quality and disease resistance, to ensure we continue to see UK-grown milling wheat.”
Homegrown milling quality wheat is a significant part of UK food security, so the UK flour milling industry requires a productive, profitable domestic farming sector which can meet quality requirements year after year, emphasises Joe Brennan of UK Flour Millers.
“Group 1 wheats are the backbone of UK bread making flour. These are the varieties that we can rely on season after season to produce sustained, high levels of consistent milling and baking performance. They tend to be higher protein wheats, which we term as hard milling. These wheats also have the strong gluten which is crucial to produce the large, relatively tall loaves of bread which UK customers prefer.”
Joe adds that last season was extremely challenging for farmers and followed several difficult years. “We’re seeing this feed into the UK milling industry with our projected use of homegrown wheat for 2024/25 under 70%. This is the lowest proportion in more than 20 years and quite different to a typical year when we use at least 80% homegrown wheat.
“A significant part of the reason for that is the decline in Group 1 wheat production in the UK, from more than 4.5M tonnes in 2019 when it accounted for approximately 28% of the UK wheat area, to just above 2.5M tonnes, 25% of the UK wheat area, in 2024.”
Another issue with Group 1s is a decline in the ability of farmers to achieve the required specifications, often linked in recent seasons to unfavourable weather conditions and exceptionally high costs for inputs such as nitrogen fertiliser, he points out.
“Data from AHDB’s Cereal Quality Survey indicates that the percentage of Group 1 wheat meeting specification (13% protein, 250 Hagberg, 76kg/hl) declined from 48% in 2018 to just 13% in 2023, with a slight bounce back to 20% in 2024,” he says.
Vibe is unusual in that it achieved Group 1 performance at NL1 and NL2 in 2022 and 2023, as well as the RL stage in 2024 – three contrasting seasons, highlights Olivia.
“Characterised by good grain quality, including a Hagberg of 283 and a specific weight of 79.1kg/hl, it consistently delivered higher protein at 13.2% than the control in each of the three years, exhibiting good gluten quality, loaf volumes and overall baking performance.”
Looking closer at its bread-making characteristics, Olivia notes that in baking tests at the Allied Technical Centre, Vibe has outperformed KWS Zyatt in every situation. “It has a softer, white crumb, larger loaf volume and good loaf height, as well as improved layering performance in pastries and better crumb in rolls. Vibe will appeal to milling wheat growers who want a variety which combines high yield with high protein.”
In trials by millers, Vibe demonstrated high quality, protein and specific weight as well as consistent breadmaking performance season after season, says Joe. “This is what defines a Group 1, as opposed to a Group 2 variety.
“As an industry we assess varieties at NL1, NL2 and RL stage, so three years of testing. And for Group 1 wheats we also carry out a commercial assessment where we have 60t of each new variety grown to standard milling specification and send it to flour millers to be milled on a commercial scale.
“Batches of 1t of that flour go to mills across the country, even those not involved in the earlier three years of testing, allowing us to confirm what we’ve seen during the previous three years – that the variety is of the consistent quality that we’d expect from a Group 1 and that it should command a corresponding premium.”
Based on this, Vibe has been fully approved by the flour milling industry as a Group 1 following commercial scale quality assessments, he points out.
In RL trials it achieved 98% of control across the UK, recorded its highest yield in the West at 100%, 99% in the North and 97% in the East, with an untreated yield 89% of control, says Olivia.
“Across the rotation, KWS Vibe delivers excellent performance, both as a first wheat at 98% of control and as a second cereal at 97%, which is important because 60% of milling wheats are sown in the second cereal position. In the early and late sown slots the variety achieved 98% and 99% of control respectively, 98% on both light and heavy soils.”
Offering a strong agronomic package with no weaknesses, Vibe provides improved disease ratings and untreated yield than comparators, she highlights. “Vibe has a 7 for eyespot and mildew, it scores 8 for yellow rust which will really help Group 1 milling wheat growers, together with a 6 for brown rust, 6.6 for septoria and 6 for fusarium.”
Although it appears there aren’t any major weaknesses to the variety, Cefetra’s Kate Armstrong points out that it doesn’t have orange wheat blossom midge resistance. “This is something to be aware of, but this is the case for most Group 1 varieties.
“It also has a reasonably slow growth habit up until GS32 which should be considered in regard to its competitiveness against weeds,” she adds.
Vibe is stiff strawed and 87cm high without a PGR, has an 8 for resistance to lodging with or without a PGR, and is rated +1 days for ripening compared with the control, comments Olivia.
“Regional dates for sowing are from 1 September in Scotland and North Lincolnshire/Yorkshire, 15 September for the West and Midlands, and 20 September for East Anglia, the Midlands and South, with the latest safe sowing date at the end of January,” she says.
Whereas Vibe’s slow development, its ability to tiller, and a score of 7 for eyespot resistance makes it an ideal variety to start drilling early, a key requirement for growers further north, adds Olivia. “In addition, it delivers some of the highest yields compared with current Group 1 wheats on the current RL in this region, giving growers access to premium market opportunities where available.
“In the East and West regions Vibe is all about yield, market potential, disease resistance and field performance, making it one of the most profitable wheats a farmer can grow.”
Cefetra’s confidence in the variety is clear from its buyback offering. “We’ve had a buyback for Harvest 2026 in place because we know that Vibe has huge marketability due to its consistently high protein levels, even during the past two seasons when we’ve seen some of the other Group 1 varieties struggle to make full spec milling quality,” concludes Kate.
This article was taken from the latest issue of CPM. Read the article in full here.
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