The 2020 crops are yet to be harvested, but many farmers will be planning ahead and thinking about rotations and winter crop areas for 2021.

Farmers should be looking at the seed availability to see if their chosen variety will be in tight supply.

With this in mind, AgriLand has included the seed availability figures for the 2020/2021 winter cereal crops below. Over the next few days, details of varieties on the recommended list trials from the Department of Agriculture will also be published.

There are plenty of new varieties to look out for and some old reliables which are still performing well.

Winter barley

Two varieties from last season will have no seed for the season ahead – KWS Tower and KWS Carneval.

Two varieties have also made their way onto the market – KWS Joyau and KWS Patriot. Both of these varieties take up 5% of the seed availability, as can be seen in detail below.

Winter barley seed availability 2020/2021 (%):
  • KWS Cassia – 20%;
  • Valerie – 20%;
  • Belfry – 16%;
  • LG Casting – 16%;
  • KWS Infinity – 11%;
  • KWS Joyau – 5%;
  • KWS Patriot – 5%;
  • Pixel – 4%;
  • KWS Kosmos – 2%;
  • Bazooka – 1%.

Winter wheat

Four varieties which were not available last year have seed availability this year – RGT Saki; LGWU143; SY Insitor; and LG Illuminate.

Four varieties have also been discontinued – Cellule; Dunston; KWS Firefly; and KWS Extase.

Winter wheat seed availability 2020/2021 (%):
  • Graham – 46%;
  • Costello – 25%;
  • Bennington – 13%;
  • KWS Conros – 4%;
  • RGT Saki – 3%;
  • JB Diego – 3%;
  • Torp – 2%;
  • LGWU143 – 2%;
  • SY Insitor – 1%;
  • LG Illuminate – 1%.

Winter oats

Husky will take up the largest seed availability of winter oats next season. WPB Isabel has also increased its availability. Barra will take up just 5% of the seed availability, while Keely is no longer on the list.

Winter oat seed availability 2020/2021 (%):
  • Husky – 62%;
  • WPB Isabel – 33%;
  • Barra – 5%.