The Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) has launched its online edition of the recommended lists for cereals and oilseed varieties 2022/23.
It features a record number of variety types and traits.
The edition introduces new traits for barley (including barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) tolerance), an improved choice of spring and winter milling wheat varieties, as well as new options for brewing and distilling.
The list also features improvements to cereal lodging resistance ratings and additional information on resistance to septoria in winter wheat.
Paul Gosling, who manages the recommended lists at AHDB, said:
“Spread across the crops, dozens of new varieties are available.
“The improved choice includes many exciting new traits, which will help growers manage crops and target potential new markets.”
Disease rating
In 2020, a new disease rating system for cereal rusts was introduced to provide greater differentiation in scores.
Similarly, the 2022/23 recommended list is based on an improved calculation approach for lodging resistance.
“We revised the cereal lodging ratings to help pull apart varietal differences. This will make the ratings more representative of what is seen in the field and improve their consistency,” Gosling said.
“Although ratings have fallen for some varieties, this is a consequence of calculation change, not an increased susceptibility to lodging.”
Following high levels of septoria tritici in the 2020/21 growing season and concerns about the breaking of resistance, AHDB issued the recommended list 2022/23 winter wheat disease ratings earlier in September.
This saw a rating fall for many varieties. Two ratings were issued based on the standard three-year (2019–21) and a one-year (2021) data set.
The latter ratings help reveal last season’s impact and varieties most likely to benefit from closer monitoring.
New varieties
New recommendations for winter wheat include varieties with an alternative genetic basis of resistance to septoria, which should make useful contributions to the control of this important foliar disease, according to AHDB.
The system for oilseed rape has also changed to make it easier to recommend conventional open-pollinated varieties.
“Open-pollinated varieties remain popular. However, there was a danger that they would be completely lost from the recommended list in favour of hybrid varieties,” Gosling continued.
“Changes to our selection procedures should help maintain the recommendation of strong conventional options.”
Available for the major crop types, more detailed variety comments illustrate how a greater diversity of options – delivered by plant breeders – has strengthened varietal traits for yield, agronomy, disease and quality characteristics, the AHDB outlined.
The 2022/23 recommended list for wheat, barley, oats and winter oilseed rape, and variety comments, can be accessed online, alongside updated descriptive lists for spring oilseed rape, spring linseed, winter triticale and winter rye.