In this issue..

Robust varieties find favour
High disease-tolerance
ratings and untreated
yields are the stand-out
characteristics of varieties
added to the 2016/17 AHDB
Cereals and Oilseeds
Recommended Lists. CPM
scrutinises the newcomers.
By Tom Allen-Stevens
Resilience and risk management are the
hallmarks stamped across the new AHDB
Cereals and Oilseeds Recommended
Lists. Tricky diseases such as light leaf
spot and Septoria tritici see an average
lift in resistance ratings with one or two
notable disease-shunning stars.
The 2016/17 RL is a slimmer affair too
–– while 32 varieties have been added,
47 have been swept into niche-market
territory. “A lot of varieties have been
removed because their seed area is low,”
explains RL manager Dr Simon Oxley.
And there’s a new RL relative-risk grid.
This charts where a variety scores on its
untreated yield against agronomic merit,
giving the RL committee a quick way
to judge whether it’ll give up the ghost if
it hasn’t seen a sprayer for a couple
of weeks.
A conventional oilseed rape variety is
back at the top of the AHDB East/West
region OSR RL. Elgar from Elsoms sits
atop a list that’s made some striking
average gains for the past three years,
notes Simon Oxley. “But it’s not all about
yield –– there are some other impressive
characteristics.
“Elgar has a very good disease-resistance
package and a stiff stem –– it looks like an
exciting variety.” Perhaps the most notable
score is a 7 for light leaf spot. This is a first
▲
“
It’s not all
about yield – there are
some other impressive
characteristics. ”
8 crop production magazine december 2015