There are big changes to the Recommended Lists for cereals and oilseed Varieties for 2016/17 says Ed Trotter of Strutt & Parker’s Stamford office.

Ed trotter continues, “next year will see a total of 32 new cereal and oilseed varieties, whilst 47 varieties have been removed.  The new range have good all-round disease packages and high yield potential”.

Group 1 Wheat now has a rival for Skyfall, with a better disease performance but slightly lower yield, RGT Illustrious is now a contender.

Group 2 Wheat has not seen any new varieties, however the new KWS variety Siskin is a Hard group 4 variety  with traits which could get growers a small premium similar to a group 2 and also tops the table for untreated yield.

Group 3 has had 3 varieties added with KWS Barrel being top for treated yield, ideal for biscuit making.

Group 4 has 5 new hard varieties; Siskin, Graham, Silverstone, Crispin and Belgrade. KWS Silverstone is the highest treated yielding variety on the list, however Graham and Crispin can offer better disease performance.

Oilseed Rape has 6 new varieties, the highlight of which is a conventional variety Elgar from Elsoms seeds, topping the table for treated yield and adjusted for oil content. Windozz has also been added which is now the highest yielding Hybrid on the list. However the variety with the highest market share is not on the list which reduces its comparable effectiveness.

The highlights of the Winter Barley lists include Bazooka; a six row hybrid feed variety and Craft a 2 row malting variety (under testing) with better yield and disease credentials than SY Venture.  Spring Barley has 5 new varieties added with Laureate a malting variety contender to RGT Planet.

Ed concludes; “the research and development side of companies producing grain for farmers is a very important side to this business.  Investment into new varieties is not a cheap business but if it can lead to better yields and more resistance to disease it should be applauded.”

For more information, contact Ed Trotter, at Strutt & Parker Stamford.