Two winter oilseed rape varieties have dropped off the Recommended List since 2021 due to seed availability issues, namely Anastasia and Aquila.
Varieties appearing on the list for the first time are provisionally recommended (PR) and have completed three years in combined national list / recommended list trials.
The variety DK Expansion has been upgraded from a provisionally recommended to a fully recommended variety.
Two new varieties have been added to the list namely Ambassador and Aurelia as PR varieties.
Recommended List
The only fully recommended variety for 2022/2023 is the hybrid DK Expansion. It first came onto the Recommended List with a PR in 2021 and has been upgraded to a fully recommended variety in for 2022/2023.
This is the highest yielding variety on the Recommended list. Early vigour is good. This is the tallest variety on the list but has very good lodging resistance and good stem stiffness.
It is late to flower and has an early maturity rating. Expansion has good light leaf spot and very high shedding resistance scores.
Ambassador is another hybrid variety. It first came onto the Recommended List with a provisional recommendation this year. It is a high yielding variety. Early vigour is good.
Ambassador has very good lodging resistance and good stem stiffness. It is moderately early to flower and has an early maturity rating. It has good light leaf spot resistance.
Aurelia is the third hybrid variety featured on the DAFM lists. It first came onto the Recommended List with a provisional recommendation this year. It is a high yielding variety and early vigour is good.
Aurelia has very good lodging resistance and good stem stiffness. It is moderately early to flower and has an early maturity rating. It has excellent light leaf spot resistance.
Teagasc is confirming a significant increase in the area of winter oilseed rape planted out this year; a 20% increase in cropping area may well be obtained.
This could bring the area of winter oilseed rape grown in Ireland during 2022/2023 close to 20,000ha.
It means that the area of rape grown in Ireland has almost doubled over recent years. Factors driving this growth include the margin that can be achieved from the crop.
Apart from its many other advantages, rape is often chosen as a crop option to control difficult weeds in fields.