A new interactive version of the RL to aid variety selection

RL interactive makes it even easier to identify the best varieties of cereals and oilseed rape for specific situations.

Based on variety data from the Recommended Lists for cereals and oilseeds (RL), the online, interactive tables feature filters to help people identify varieties that meet their market, quality, yield, disease resistance and agronomic requirements.

The tool covers winter wheat, winter barley, winter oilseed rape, winter oats and spring oats.

Kathryn Hales, RL Development Manager at AHDB, said:

“We identified the need to improve the presentation of variety data during the latest RL review. Simple and intuitive to use, RL interactive will help people whittle down varieties to the ones most likely to meet their needs.”

The new tool is the latest in a string of digital tools in the RL portfolio.

The first RL tables were published online in the 1990s. The first interactive tool was released in 2004 (RL Plus), which was superseded by the variety selection tool in 2015. The RL app was added to the suite of digital tools in 2020.

The variety selection tool, which is available for RL major crops, delivers unprecedented power to navigate and interrogate variety trial data. It introduced the concept of agronomic merit and lets people ‘drill down’ into RL data sets and focus on specific trial sites.

Kathryn said:

“RL interactive is relatively simple and likely to have a broad appeal. We hope that it will provide a stepping stone between the static tables and the feature-packed variety selection tool.”

RL interactive was developed in consultation with potential users at events during 2024. The feedback identified a strong preference for a tool similar to the AHDB Recommended Grass and Clover List online tool, which presents data in tables that can be filtered by characteristics.

RL interactive allows users to:

• Select varieties for specific end-use markets
• Specify the minimum requirements for fungicide-treated yield
• Identify varieties with resistance to specific pests, diseases and lodging
• Find varieties based on ripening and quality data

The tool also allows a side-by-side comparison of varieties and the export of results, which can be analysed further in a spreadsheet and printed.