Welcome to the first EVER Nickerson Seed Book!

Click to download your copy of the new guide!

For the very first time, you’ll find our entire range brought together in one place – Cereals, Pulses, Oilseed Rape, Maize, Circle Leys grass mixtures, plus our specialist Forage and Environmental seeds. A full catalogue designed to give you clarity, choice, and confidence when it comes to your seed decisions.

Nickerson are the Original Seed Specialists. For over 75 years, we’ve supplied seed and advice to British farmers – trusted by generations because we understand the job, the challenges, and what it takes to grow a successful crop. Our history gives us provenance. Our experience gives you peace of mind. When you choose Nickerson, you are not just buying seed – you are investing in a partnership.

That partnership is delivered through our nationwide team of Nickerson Seed Specialists. These are not simply salespeople – they are experts, practical thinkers, and trusted advisors. They know farming, they know seed, and they take the time to understand your business. Their role is simple: to help you make the best choice for every field, every season.

We are proud of our heritage, but we never stand still.

Farming is changing – new pressures, new opportunities, new demands on every hectare. Our job is to make sure you have the right seed, the right advice, and the right support to meet those challenges head-on.

This brochure is designed to help you do exactly that. It brings our portfolio together in one clear guide – from high-yielding cereals and resilient oilseed rape to productive maize, proven grass mixtures, and targeted environmental options. Every product has been selected, tested, and supported by Nickerson, so you can choose with confidence.

Quality seed. Trusted advice. Unmatched service. That has been our promise for over 75 years – and it remains our promise today.

Take a look at our 2026 Seed Book today.

As the 2025 autumn drilling season draws to a close, I have now completed my first full season with Nickerson.

James Frazer

There will be some more wheat to be drilled after potatoes but on the whole, most farms have completed their drilling campaign for crop 2026. The ’25 growing season has been challenging due to the extreme weather conditions that growers have faced. The dry spring allowed spring crops to be established early in good conditions, but the crops were soon needing moisture and yields have suffered as a result.

The winter crops, by contrast, were established in good conditions in autumn ’24 and although there has been some loss of yield potential due to moisture stress, the yields have been very good for winter wheat, barley and oilseed rape.

The oilseed rape especially, has been the standout crop on most farms that include it in their rotation, with many yields reported around or above 5t/ha! 

The role with Nickerson has helped me increase my knowledge of varieties of all crops, which has allowed me to better advise my customers.

LG Typhoon

For winter barley growers, both LG Caravelle and LG Capitol are equally good options. Oilseed rape growers have a plentiful number of varieties to choose from, with LG Adapt giving another step up in yield, alongside the established LG Armada and LG Ambassador. LG Anarion is still a robust variety for farms with shorter brassica rotations.

LG Rebellion

Wheat growers have a choice of variety for each sowing position. LG Typhoon is suitable for the early sowing slot from the start of September, and LG Beowulf is a good option for the mid and late drilling slot. For late drilling, which is predominantly after potatoes or vegetables, LG Redwald offers a very high yield potential.

Although LG Skyscraper has been on the market for several years, it has shown its resilience, and it is still a good option for the mid to late slot. This year, many farmers have commented that it has yielded around 12.5 t/ha in many different parts of the country.

Another variety that gives growers a different option is LG Rebellion. It has an early maturity of -1, without losing a lot of yield. In fact, it was one of our top yielding varieties in the LG Perth trial site.

With this season over, I’m already looking forward to the next one, and I’m eager to see how new LG varieties are performing on farm.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact your local Nickerson Seed Specialist.

LG Rebellion; an early high yielding, hard wheat for the south-west

In recent years, south-west England has seen increasing interest in hard feed wheats, that offer both yield and adaptability. One variety making waves is LG Rebellion; a Group 4 hard feed wheat from Limagrain, which brings together several traits, especially suited to the climate and soils of this region.

Taken mid-November 2024, LG Rebellion on the right, versus a competitor variety

LG Rebellion builds on the agronomic pedigree of KWS Extase but improves in key areas. It’s early to mature, which is a big plus in the south-west, where weather windows for harvest can be tight. Early maturity gives growers more flexibility for arranging subsequent cropping or mitigating risk of late season weather damage. With this in mind, late drilling is also a viable option with LG Rebellion.

Yield potential is another strong point. Trials indicate LG Rebellion delivers very strong untreated yields, comparable or even exceeding many other hard varieties. It’s disease resistance profile is robust; good resistance to yellow rust and Septoria, and it carries Pch1 eyespot resistance – a valuable trait where eyespot can be a threat under damp conditions.

Sown in October 2023, LG Rebellion established well by early April and by mid-May, it had romped away!

In the souh-west, soils range from heavier clay loams to lighter sandy soils, often with significant rainfall, especially during autumn and winter. Crops here endure a combination of wet conditions, risk of disease pressure, and sometimes slower seedbed drying.

A wheat variety that matures earlier, with strong disease resistance, helps reduce these risks. LG Rebellion’s stiffness of straw and earlier harvest window are valuable assets.

On balance, LG Rebellion looks like a strong option for wheat growers in the south-west. Its combination of excellent yield, earlier maturity, and resistance traits, make it well suited to the climatic and disease pressures of the area.

For farmers looking to spread harvest workload, reduce risk, and maintain quality, LG Rebellion seems to tick many of the right boxes.

LG Rebellion yielded 1 t/ acre more than the competitor variety.

We have a number of new wheat varieties in the LG portfolio this year.

The first to look out for is LG Shergar, a newcomer on the Recommended List for 2025. Although a Group 2 variety with breadmaking potential, LG Shergar is largely grown as a feed wheat meaning it offers a lot of marketing flexibility.  It is suited to most soil types, but performs best on heavy, fertile soil and it is a short, stiffed strawed variety with good resistance to lodging.

LG Shergar is best suited for the first wheat drilling slot, but its flexibility allows it to perform well as a second wheat too, meaning it can be drilled into February. With a specific weight of 80.4, it is the highest on the Recommended List of all the Group 1s and 2s, contributing to a higher yield and looked upon favourably by end users. With high yields particularly in the North and an excellent disease resistance package, I think this variety will be a strong choice for many Yorkshire growers and am particularly excited to see what it does on farm, in areas like Holderness.

We are hosting our Rothwell demo day on 8^th July, so please come along and see how LG Shergar has performed in trials as well as view our other varieties, including Nickerson’s exclusive variety LG Rebellion.

The winter of 2023/24 was long and wet, and many winter-drilled cereal crops suffered and failed to establish. This led to some re-drilling through various parts of the country, exposing additional costs and losses.

Plant growth 11 days after drilling

A mid-October drilled crop of LG Caravelle over wintered very differently on the outskirts of Sidmouth, just a mile from the coast. This crop experienced six months of saturated soil and salty winds to produce a bumper crop at 4.5t/acre. This was largely due to a good strong root system being put down early with the help of Nickerson’s GPA proprietary seed coating. This helps to protect the seed and provide essential micronutrients where it is needed to promote good root growth and establishment. This in turn let the roots grow below the saturated layer of soil at the surface, and enabled oxygen to still be taken in by the roots. The same could also be said of drought periods, a good root structure can still find moisture in the lower soil levels, reducing crop stress due to lack of moisture.

Mid-April after 6 months of wet weather

The seed used was also of a very high quality, as you would expect from Nickerson, with a high germination and vigour rate. This all contributed to providing a good grain yield and large amounts of quality straw. There was so much straw that the combine had to push his header 4-5 foot outside of the crop, as the bailer could not cope.

Harvest day, note the header outside of the crop so the bailer can cope with the straw

It is worth seeking out the best quality seed with the right seed coatings to minimise risk when faced with the potential of adverse weather.

If you’d like more information on cropping options or our GPA coating, please contact Rob Ayres on 07827 890 390

For the fifth season the Todd family are kindly hosting our wheat demonstration in the borders.  This year we have 19 different varieties from ones growers are using at the moment, ones which are being looked at to grow in the future and new varieties within the AHDB candidate list.  After the success of last year’s demonstration we have repeated the different establishment methods.  All the varieties have been sown into both cultivated ground and directly into a standing cover crop with LG Redwald and LG Typhoon at different seed rates, 100% and 50% of the standard rate.

Updates will be posted throughout the season and we will again host an open day, with our partners Hutchinsons, in June.

As the shed doors close after a challenging harvest ‘23 we have been busy sowing the Nickerson demonstration sites for the coming season.

We have three sites this year.  In Aberdeenshire at Savock Farms, Ellon by kind permission of Andrew Booth.

Savock Farms, Ellon

Barelees Farm, Borders

In Fife at Wellsgreen Farm by kind permission of WS & J Whiteford and in conjunction with Forth Crop Solutions and in the borders at Barelees Farm by kind permission of the Todd family.

At each site we have current popular varieties and new varieties to look at from both the Limagrain wheat breeding program as well as other breeders.  Our focus this year has been on seed rates, so many varieties have been sown at different rates.

Wellsgreen Farm, Fife

Cultivation and the rotation position is different on each site.  At Savock the demonstration is after winter oil seed rape, cultivated with a Simba XL and sown with an Amazon drill, at Wellsgreen the demonstration is following spring barley cultivated with Simba SL and sown with a Lemken power harrow drill.  The Barelees site is after peas harvested in June and then sown in a cover crop.  Most of the field was cultivated with a Terrano the day before sowing with an area left to allow us to drill into the cultivated area and directly into the cover crop with a Vaderstad Rapid.

Updates will be posted throughout the season but if anyone would like to visit any of the sites please contact either Nick or Douglas.