THIS year's crop variety open day, organised by Farmway, the North-East agricultural co-operative, is on Friday, June 25.

This event, from noon until 6pm at Grange Farm, Croft, near Darlington, by courtesy of Croft Farms, is now the biggest cereal/oilseed rape variety event in the North-East, with large commercial crops of wheat, barley and oilseed rape varieties grown under farm conditions.

Mr Tony Simpson, Farmway commercial manager, said that, last year, Supersonic was the second highest yielding of the conventional ollseed rapes at the crop demonstration plots and they were pleased to be involved in marketing the variety.

Supersonic offers the earliest maturing variety available, which would allow more growers to sow after winter wheat and/or sow conventionally and harvest up to one week earlier than competing varieties.

Mr Simpson also said Pollen rape had performed very well, with high oil content. Farm-way has eight different oilseed rape varieties at Croft this year.

There are 11 varieties of wheat and Brian Grealy, from Countrywide Farmers, stresses the importance of growing wheat varieties for specific market places. New at Farmway is Smuggler, a very high yielding feed wheat and the ideal variety for the North-East farmer.

There are eight barley varieties, with Pearl still being the most widely grown variety.

The main varieties Farmway is promoting this year are - winter wheat, Group 1 varieties: Xi 19, Malacca; Group 2: Option, Solstice, Einstein; Group 3: Claire, Consort, Robigus, Nijinsky; Group 4: Access, Napier, Tanker, Savannah. Winter barley - malting: Pearl; 2-row feed: Carat; 6-row feed: Pict, Sequel. Winter oilseed rape: Pollen, Labrador, Canberra, Supersonic. There are also the TAG North-East trial plots of wheat and barley.