Sign up to the RL Harvest Results service

The AHDB Recommended Lists (RL) Harvest Results service will restart in the next few days. Jason Pole, who manages RL communications, explains how it delivers the latest variety data for cereals and oilseeds to farmers.

Numbers are at the heart of the RL. Be it yield, quality performance or agronomic characteristics, it all boils down to values in a quest to quantify varietal performance.

Between harvest and the release of the next RL (2023/24, due 28 November 2022), the three RL crop committees and RL board will consider the trial data, follow an agreed process, and decide on the fate of each variety.

With new-crop drilling about to start, understandably, many are keen to access information earlier. This is where the Harvest Results service comes in. It delivers trial data to the AHDB website, straight after validation by the RL team.

Validation is an important step, because it eliminates data that does not meet the RL’s strict quality standards. It is important that results provide the fairest possible test of variety performance.

The loss of an unacceptable number of plants at a site is an example of where a trial may be classified as invalid and be removed from subsequent analyses. For instance, this may be due to oilseed rape plots being ravaged by cabbage stem flea beetle.

Following validation, new results are rapidly added to the website in two report types.

Yield tables: Contain yield results from all harvested trials (fungicide treated and untreated data).

Full harvest results tables: Include yield, quality, agronomic and disease data from all harvested trials.

Following publication of several trial results for a specific crop, the in-house team issues commentary to help provide context for the published data.

Although the data from individual trials is interesting, it is unwise to draw conclusions from a small set of trials. As more trial data is published, the picture often changes. It is important to bear this in mind. The smaller the data set, the greater the caution that needs to be applied when interpreting results.

The Harvest Results variety yield data includes five-year and four-year means for cereals and oilseed rape, respectively. It is important to consider these means when looking at trial-site data. As these means include data for the current year, they often change during the reporting period as more trial data is released.

The Harvest Results web page also features two other document types for each crop trial.

Trial site: Covers the location of the trials, as well as other important details, such as the sowing dates, the soil types and the previous crops in the rotation.

Sowing list: Includes a list of varieties in trial, the status on the RL and UK breeder contact information.

Harvest Results are released for all crops covered by the RL – both the recommended ‘major’ crops and described ‘minor’ crops.

For the major crops, trial results are published as they become available. For the minor crops, because of the relatively low number of trials, results are only issued after all relevant trial data is available.

'Major' crops (recommended):

• Winter wheat
• Spring wheat
• Winter barley
• Spring barley
• Winter oats
• Spring oats
• Winter oilseed rape

Minor crops (described):

• Spring oilseed rape
• Spring linseed
• Winter triticale
• Winter rye

To ensure you do not miss the results, sign up to our Harvest Results alert emails. These are issued each time new commentary and associated reports have been added to the AHDB website.

The fastest way to learn about new results (other than watching the Harvest Results web page) is via Twitter. Simply look for the dedicated hashtag – #HarvestResults – or follow the @AHDB_Cereals Twitter feed.

Naturally, the sequence in which results are published align strongly with commercial harvest. However, there is a slight time lag, due to the data collation and validation process. Winter barley delivers the first set of RL Harvest Results, from mid-late July.

This year is associated with early harvests. Certainly, the commercial winter barley harvest has picked up pace recently. Some record-breaking early harvests have been reported, with some crops cut at the end of June.

AHDB commercial harvest progress reports will also commence later this summer. Prepared by ADAS, these reports are based on commercial harvest data provided by a network of regional reporters (mostly independent agronomists). 

Reporting frequency varies, being more frequent during the busiest harvest period. In total, six reports are produced with harvest-progress data also added to an interactive harvest dashboard.

Through an online learning platform, BASIS members can now (launched today, 13 July 2022) take a high-quality course to improve their understanding of the RL and make the most of RL data. BASIS members who complete the course can earn CPD points.