UK: New winter barley varieties added to the HGCA Recommended Lists for 2013/14

Seven new winter barley varieties have been added to the HGCA Recommended Lists (RL) 2013/14 earlier this month.

The agronomic performance of malting varieties has taken a step forward in yield with four new varieties with malting potential added to the Recommended List, Talisman, KWS Joy, Mezmaar and Soloman. Talisman is early maturing and has the highest yield of the four varieties with high resistance to mildew and rhynchosporium. KWS Joy will require attention for rhynchosporium. Mezmaar has high resistance to rhynchosporium but attention will be required to minimise lodging. Soloman has good resistance to brown rust and relatively good straw strength.

Advances have also been made in two-row feed varieties. KWS Glacier achieves recommendation for the UK. It is stiff-strawed and achieves the top yield of feed varieties, toppling Retriever from this position but with a superior specific weight. Growers will need to watch mildew but it scores 6 ratings for brown rust, rhynchosporium and net blotch. The variety has performed particularly well in the East.

Two feed varieties achieved regional recommendation. Matros is recommended for the East region and California for the West. Matros is stiff-strawed and achieved 7 ratings for mildew, brown rust and rhynchosporium and has a good untreated yield. California is a stiff-strawed variety with a yield similar to KWS Cassia in the West.

There is a good advance in spring barley yields of both malting and feed varieties. Sanette, which is potentially a future malting and brewing variety was recommended for the UK. It has good resistance to mildew but attention will be required to manage brown rust. Sanette shows good resistance to this disease and to ramularia.

Glassel is potentially a future malting and distilling variety and achieved a higher yield than Shuffle and Concerto. It has good resistance to mildew but attention will be required to manage both rhynchosporium and brown rust.

Seven feed spring barley varieties were added to the list. Tesla, Crooner, KWS Orphelia, Kelim, Natasia, Montoya and Rhyncostar. All have yields that match or are better than existing varieties. All have high resistance to mildew with Tesla and KWS Orphelia having above average resistance to rhynchosporium.

Three winter barley (Element, Pelican, Purdey) and two spring barley (Oxbridge, Summit) varieties were removed from the List.

The new potential malting varieties join the two winter barley varieties SY Venture, Archer and four spring barley varieties Moonshine, Odyssey, Chronicle and Overture selected last year which are currently undergoing macro scale malting and brewing or distilling trials.

Dr Simon Oxley, HGCA Senior Research and Knowledge Transfer Manager responsible for the Recommended Lists, said: “These new varieties show a step change in breeding varieties which provide the industry with the potential quality requirements plus an improvement in yield and agronomic features of current varieties.”

21 December, 2012