Innovation Articles
Innovations
One UK wheat field in four is now down to a KWS variety, and this looks set to grow as new types continue to roll off the breeder’s fast moving production line.
With headquarters at Thriplow and a staff of around 50, KWS UK is one of the youngest plant breeding businesses in the UK.
Originally formed in 1995 as a result of the merger of Cambridge Plant Breeders and Twyford Seeds, CPB Twyford has in recent years taken on the name of its parent, KWS, becoming KWS UK Limited.
This recognises it’s increasing cross-Europe co-operation with its German based parent. As a result, according to company technical director, Chris Tapsell, expect even more market-leading varieties to roll off the production line.
Critical to this success has been the innovative application of new technology to conventional breeding platforms. “With many new techniques available, many with very high costs, it would be easy to spend millions of pounds without necessarily delivering real benefits to breeding programmes,” he points out.
“What we’ve done is use these new technologies to complement the plant breeder. His expertise and eye for a potential winner are critical and this is where our team is undoubtedly highly skillful.”
