Winter barley recommended and candidate lists

Winter barley RL harvest results deliver a positive start to harvest 2023

With 13 of the 16 fungicide-treated AHDB Recommended Lists (RL) winter barley trials and five of the seven fungicide-untreated trials having reported, we can now get a good view of variety performance in 2023.  

Overall it continues to be a good year for winter barley yields, with the 2023 control mean of the fungicide-treated trials at 10.15 t/ha, well above the five year average of 9.76 t/ha and the mean of the fungicide untreated trials at 8.83 t/ha, again well above the five-year average of 8.03 t/ha. The weather has provided a severe test of straw strength though and we have seen of lodging in a number of trials.

Control varieties

Yields are represented as a percentage of the control varieties. In 2023, the control varieties comprise two malting varieties, Craft and Electrum, the two-row feed variety KWS Tardis, the six-row hybrid variety SY Kingsbarn and the six-row conventional variety KWS Feeris. The average of the yields from these varieties is represented as 100%.

2023 averages

In the fungicide-treated trials the six-row hybrid varieties are dominating the yield rankings this season, with SY Kingsbarn leading (110%), well above its five-year average, followed by SY Thunderbolt (108%) with Belfry, SY Kingston and SY Canyon all on 106%. Newly recommended SY Nephin and Bazooka are just behind on (105%).

Lightning (105%) has had a strong season in 2023 and leads the two-row varieties in fungicide-treated yield. The newly recommended two-row variety LG Caravelle is just behind on 104%, with KWS Tardis on 103%. Newly recommended two-row Bolivia (101%) has had a disappointing 2023 and is 2% below its five-year average. Also struggling in 2023 is BYDV tolerant six-row conventional variety KWS Feeris (99%) also below its five-year average.

Two-row malting varieties are performing close to their five year averages in 2023, with Electrum on 97%, Craft  on 91% and the newly recommended variety Buccaneer at 98%. As Buccaneer is still under test for malting growers should speak to merchants about markets before committing to the variety.

Fungicide-untreated yields

The newly recommended six-row hybrid variety SY Nephin was recommended on the basis of its good disease resistance and it leads the 2023 untreated yields (115%) performing especially well at the northern sites.  Other six-row hybrids doing well in the fungicide-untreated trials are SY Canyon (111%) and SY Thunderbolt (108%).

Two-row conventional varieties LG Caravelle and Lightning are both performing well in these trials on 111%, with LG Dazzle the next highest yielding of the two-rows on 106%. Newly recommended malting variety Buccaneer has performed well in the untreated trials (105%) well ahead of both Craft (97%) and Electrum (101%).

2019–23 (five-year) averages

The five-year average values (2019–23) provide a better representation of performance across seasons.

The six-row hybrids SY Thunderbolt (107%), SY Kingsbarn (107%), SY Kingston (106%) and SY Canyon (106%) are the highest yielding varieties in the fungicide-treated trials. However, the two-row variety LG Caravelle (106%) continues to show yield potential at a similar level, with Lightening (104%) and Bolivia, KWS Tardis and Bolton (103%) the next highest yielding of the two-rows.

In the untreated trials six-row hybrids SY Nephin (112%) and SY Canyon (111%) are highest yielding, though Lightening (109%) and newly recommended varieties LG Caravelle (110%) and Bolivia (108%) are just behind these.

Candidate varieties

Data can only be reported for candidate varieties that have completed National Listing. The 2019–23 averages are the best measure of these new varieties. 

In the fungicide-treated trials, six-row hybrid variety SY Loona (108%) is the highest yielding of the candidates and has had a good 2023 (110%). Two-row feed variety LG Capitol (106%) is the best of the two-rows, with Resolute (104%) and Valiant (103%) a little behind.

Valvira (102%) is a six-row conventional variety that carries the BYDV tolerance trait, as does six-row hybrid variety SY Buzzard (102%) and these will no doubt be of interest to some growers, despite the small yield penalty in the absence of BYDV and lower untreated yields (96% and 100% respectively).

Two-row feed variety Aleksandra is only yielding 101% in the fungicide-treated trials but is on 117% in the fungicide-untreated trials, well ahead of any other candidate or recommended variety. It does look to be prone to lodging, though no more so than some of the six-row hybrids and it does have a very high specific weight.

Six-row hybrid SY Loona is the second highest yielding candidate in the fungicide-untreated trials (112%), with two-row feed varieties LG Capitol and Resolute on both on 108% in these trials.

With most trial results in there is now likely to be little change in the variety ranking with the additional trials sites and a small change to percentage yields in most cases.

Further information

Access full trial results here

AHDB Recommended Lists (RL) trials test variety performance under optimum conditions. Care should be taken when making comparisons with commercial yields. Results from individual trial sites should not be used to make conclusions on variety performance. The RL publications are based on information from trials across the UK over several seasons. As more information becomes available from the current harvest, this will contribute to the over-trials averages – which comprise four years for oilseeds and five years for cereals. These averages provide better information for comparison between varieties. Performance variation is not the responsibility of AHDB. Since the focus is to test new varieties, not all RL varieties are presented. Yields for well-established varieties are published at ahdb.org.uk/rl