‘Lion’ marks the arrival of a new King in Spring oats

Elsoms launch a new Spring oat variety, Lion. This follows established varieties such as Delfin, Yukon and Canyon in the UK, alongside market leader Husky in Ireland.

Elsoms has built a strong understanding of the UK oat market. Working in partnership with Saaten Union and monitoring the uptake in oats as a health food, Elsoms feeds this information back in to the Saaten Union breeding program. This has helped to adapt the breeding goals to the changes in consumer demand. Changes that have allowed Elsoms to announce the launch of Lion, a new Spring Oats variety in the UK.

“Following 4 years of trials, Lion has proven itself to be a very high yielding and stable variety in Europe.” claims Head of Oat Breeding, Dr Steffen Beuch, whose company Nordsaat is the market leader in oat breeding in Europe. 

George Goodwin, Combinable Crop Manager at Elsoms Seeds, acknowledges the importance of this new variety. Lion has shown positive results in both Elsom’s own screening trials and in UK National List trials. 

“Lion offers UK growers the best combination of yield, quality while providing secure end-market options” says George. “With an impressive combination of kernel content, specific weight and hullability, Lion is clearly showing itself as the leader of the pack.”

“At the same time Spring oats can also benefit the overall crop rotation by providing a take-all break. Lion looks very exciting and seed will be available from Spring 2021” he concludes.

For more information download our tech sheet here. Alternatively, you can contact Elsoms’ Combinable Crop Manager, George Goodwin here.