Celebrating success and innovation in UK crop science and agriculture
Our trio of awards are a fantastic opportunity for NIAB to celebrate and reward innovation, hard work, knowledge and success by the agricultural industry.
Our oldest prize, the NIAB Cereals Cup, was first awarded in 1953 to the spring barley Proctor and past winners have included Einstein winter wheat in 2005, Pearl winter barley in 2004, Skyfall winter wheat in 2015 and most recently Robigus winter wheat in 2019.
The NIAB Variety Cup was first awarded in 1986 to the cauliflower White Rock, with past winners including Libravo winter oilseed rape in 1990, perennial ryegrasses Aberdart in 2003 and Abergreen in 2015, Roberta sugar beet in 2004 and most recently to the red onion Red Baron in 2019.
For these two awards varieties of all types of agricultural and horticultural crops are reviewed on an annual basis by NIAB technical staff, checking agronomic performance, end-use suitability and market influence. All aspects of performance are taken into account when making the decision with information from variety trials, grower experience as well as the milling, malting and feeding industries to ensure an overall view is taken in selecting the winner. It takes a truly exceptional variety to win either cup and NIAB can go several years without making an award.
The NIAB Agronomy Cup is our newcomer having only began in 2012. It celebrates practical agronomic science and skills by young agriculturalists, with past winners including IBERS - Aberystwyth University (2017, 2018 and 2019), Royal Agricultural University (2014) and Easton and Otley College (2013).