Help us develop an interactive version of the Recommended Lists (RL)

From the publication of the lists on the web in the 1990s to the launch of an app in 2020, the RL for cereals and oilseeds has always embraced digital developments. You can now help shape the next stage of the RL’s evolution – interactive RL tables. Jason Pole explains.

The RL has delivered trusted, independent variety information since 1944. Over the intervening 80 years, it has evolved and adapted through many changes to farming and wider society, including the digital revolution.

The RL is already available via several digital sources. We now plan to go one further, with the development of interactive RL tables, but we need your help.

In 2019, we published the first iteration of the variety selection tool (VST), which lets you filter variety data in many ways.

For example, the tool can reveal the UKFM Group 3 winter wheat varieties with high levels of yellow rust resistance (disease ratings of 8 or 9).

It can also be used to view the UK or regional yield performance of selected varieties, including how varieties respond to fungicides (treatment benefit).

You can use it to compare varieties against a non-yield metric (agronomic merit), which aims to capture the genetic potential of varieties based on resistance to disease and lodging.

It even reveals how varieties performed at specific trial sites.

It is packed full of bells and whistles.

But it may be too complex for some.

In 2020, we published the RL app to deliver variety data to your fingertips.

It lets you view recommended, described and candidate data.

You can now also compare up to three varieties side by side.

One of its biggest benefits over the static RL tables is that we can ‘push’ updates to the app at any time (such as the latest candidate data), meaning it stays up to date.

Compared to the variety selection tool, it is relatively simple.

But it may be too simple for some.

It is possible to ‘interact’ with the online RL tables, especially if you are a whizz with Excel and have the time.

We want to make it even easier for you to navigate the RL tables.

Partly inspired by the online tool for the Recommended Grass and Clover Lists, we are developing options for interactive RL tables and we need your help.

Please let us know which viewing options you prefer in the online survey form (by Wednesday 31 July 2024).

In the recent RL review, people asked us to look at data presentation to make sure that RL results reach diverse users at the right time and in the right format.

The RL interactive tables could potentially act as a bridge between the RL’s static tables, app and variety selection tool.

We anticipate the tool will be based on the next edition of the RL (2025/26).