French Link

French breeder, Momont is a key European partner in the KWS UK partnership.

The family owned business has been in planting breeding for nearly 150 years.

Now – as a result of the KWS acquisition of the CPB Twyford business – Momont has closer links with the UK side of the business.

UK growers will be familiar with traditional open pollinating varieties such as Expert and most recently Komando, which took a 5% market share in its launch year.

However, the company has a younger, hybrid programme – largely using the INRA Ogura system - with the promising first stage material in early trial in France.

According to company OSR specialist, Thierry Momont, key breeding priorities focus on yield and it doesn’t matter whether this comes from a hybrid or in-bred.

“Not every European country rewards growers for oil content,” he says. “Thus, yield and, in particular consistency of yield, is our main priority.”

While stem canker is the main disease to hit mainland Europe and the most important to provide some resistance towards, Momont also screen all their material with Scottish Agronomy for light leaf spot resistance.

As a result, some 5-6 rapes from the Momont programme are now entered into official UK trials each year.