Seeding Success
Walnes Seeds has been processing and selling agricultural seed from its HQ at Earl Soham, Suffolk since 2013. However, the Walnes brand has been synonymous with East Anglia’s farming community for more than 80 years.
Founded in 1939 by Captain Henry Alfred Walne, this forward-thinking agricultural business evolved from a traditional corn merchant into a diverse farm supplies company, which prospered when Framlingham welcomed the railway, linking the thriving market town to Ipswich and its busy port. Trade flourished as HA Walne grasped opportunities to broaden its customer base beyond the local farming sector.
Expansion during the late 1950s focused investment on a new compounding mill, larger grain stores and a fleet of bulk-haulage lorries. Turnover quadrupled from 1964 to 1972, and the business established mutually beneficial links with other agricultural suppliers, including specialist nutrition company Colbourn-Dawes. Diversification including, the launch of its own K9 pet food brand and an animal health business stocking over the counter veterinary products, disinfectants, fencing supplies, silage additives and various livestock/pet sundries also increased trading opportunities.
Consolidation during the mid-1980s Walnes brought some restructuring with investment focused on modernising its milling and seed processing facilities – a strategy that cemented Walnes reputation as a high-quality seed processor and supplier. The seed division continued to expand and when HA Walnes merchanting ceased trading in 1992, Walnes Seeds Ltd emerged as independent, specialist seed supplier.
Our Seed Cycle
Most of the agricultural seed we sell is grown within a 50-mile radius of Walnes HQ.
We grow all types of combinable crops:
- Winter and spring cereals including wheat, barley, triticale and oats.
- Oil seed rape and linseed
- Winter and spring sown beans and peas
- Vetches
- Italian and perennial rye grasses
Each season we select specific varieties from AHDB’s Recommended List, choosing reliable, robust high-yielding varieties that will match our customers’ requirements and meet market demands
We produce conventionally grown and organic seed and all our products are 100% quality assured and fully traceable. Our contract growers are members of the Red Tractor farm assurance scheme and those growing organic seed crops are also certified by an approved organic certification scheme.
Proficient heritage
Our professional seed growers are predominantly family businesses located in Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex. We have between 25 and 30 contract seed growers, amounting to a collective area in seed production of approximately 2000 hectares. Many have been producing seed for us for more than 30 years and all have an outstanding reputation for exceptional land management and crop husbandry.
“Many of our contract farms have been growing seed for Walnes for generations – one of them has been with us for 40 years. Our long heritage is testament to the collaborative way we work with our farmers. Our professional, quality-oriented approach offers mutual benefits to us as seed suppliers and the individual businesses that grow our crops,” – Andrew Cooper, MD.
Production & Process Control
Walnes is a fully licenced, Defra-approved seed producer, processor and merchant. All crops grown for seed must, by law, be certified and the certification process begins at drilling.
Every field sown with a seed crop receives a unique identity number, indicating its specific location and what’s being grown. Each crop is then issued with an inspection record card, listing its ID number, the field and holding number and grower details. This card is used to record all field inspection outcomes. Established crops are inspected at least once during the growing season (usually March to July) by Walnes own Defra licensed crop inspectors (pop up link to a DAVE, TIM, ANDREW biog – see note ).
Each crop is assessed for uniform growth and purity (weed incursions/volunteers etc) using standardised Defra measurements/formulars. Any crops that fail to meet these standards are rejected. Predicted yield is also recorded.
Cereals are inspected at the ear stage; beans and peas are observed in flower; oil seed rape is monitored at the rosette stage (early spring) and linseed is inspected when flowering. Herbage and grass seed crops are inspected as seed heads form and /or when they are in flower.
Walnes seed crops are carefully managed to optimise plant health, performance and yield potential. Crop husbandry, although similar to those practised in commercial arable production, tends to be more diligent with disease and weed control. This ensures purity throughout the crop and that we harvest uniform, healthy superior-quality seed.
Sampling and certification
Quality control is paramount. All of the seed supplied to us is rigorously tested on arrival with intake samples analysed for purity (weed, pest incursions) and to determine health status and germination capability. All the tests Walnes undertakes are in accordance with UK seed regulations, which regulates all of our processing, seed dressing, packing and handling operations. We are also certified with the European Seed Treatment Assurance scheme (ESTA), QA standard for seed treatment and plant protection procedures, and TASCC Trade Assurance Scheme for Combinable Crops which are endorsed by legislation and widely recognised by industry and food supply chains.
TASCC and ESTA audits are carried out annually, to ensure members remain fully compliant with certified traceability requirements and quality assurance standards. The seed certification regulations mean all seeds grown, processed and sold by Walnes can be traced to source – right back to the first-generation grown of a specific variety if need be. It’s an authentic QA system that benefits the entire supply chain and provides us and the individual farmers and growers we trade with confidence, that we are supplying high quality products that satisfy the food safety and quality standards end users expect.
Once samples are approved, the business of turning the harvested grain into prime, ready-to-drill seed, begins. Processing relies on a series of cleaning procedures to remove chaff, other plant seeds, broken grains and other debris that might be present. The grain is passed over numerous, vibrating screens – each with differing mesh profiles and sizes – to ‘sieve out’ unwanted material. Air is also blown through the grain to lift out dust and any dry, light weight contaminants. Clean seed then moves on to be treated, if necessary, before being packaged ready for sale or stored.
Seed treatments can include fungicides, bio-stimulants and micro-nutrients. They are applied specifically in line with customer requirements and growing conditions.