Spring barley recommended and candidate lists

First spring barley Recommended List harvest results from England showing low yields

• Frist data available 22 days ahead of 2025
• Yields from the first five fungicide-treated spring barley trials average 7.11 t/ha, well below the 5-year average
• Yields from just two fungicide-untreated trials are available, but early indications are for yields below the 5-year average

Yields from five of the 20 Recommended List fungicide-treated trials in Kent, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire and Devon and two fungicide-untreated trials in Cambridgeshire and Hampshire are available today 7 August. Average yield of the control varieties is 7.11 t/ha in the fungicide-treated trials, 0.54 t/ha below the five-year average of 7.65 t/ha. Control yields in all the trials are below 2025 which was in itself a low yielding year, which does not bode well.  Average yield of the controls in the fungicide-untreated trials is 5.99 t/ha, below the five-year average of 6.34 t/ha with the Hampshire trial especially low yielding, despite only very low levels of disease.

2025-26 Season

Once again it has been a very difficult year for some RL spring barley trials as for commercial crops, with the drought and high temperatures having significant impacts. Though establishment was generally even, plant populations have been low, with weak tillering, limiting yield potential. Trials from further north have yet to report and with lower temperatures and more rainfall should produce better yields.

Yield calculation

Yields are represented as a percentage of the control varieties. In 2026 the control varieties comprise five malting varieties, RGT Planet, Laureate, LG Diablo, Firefoxx and Skyway. The average of the yields from the control varieties is represented as 100%.

2026 yield averages

Highest yielding of the fully approved malting varieties at this stage is Skyway on 103% with Belter, which is now fully approved for both brewing and malt distilling on 102%. Firefoxx and Laureate are just behind on 101%. SY Tennyson is having a slow start on 98%, alongside RGT Planet, with LG Diablo also off to a slow start on 96%. KWS Sassy is having a very poor 2026, on just 74%, some 17% below its five-year average. It has performed poorly at all the sites that have reported so far. Poor plant populations were noted for KWS Sassy across trials during inspections, which likely accounts for the low yield. KWS Sassy is generally grown in the north and it will be interesting to see if its performance is better in the north when those trials report.

Several varieties have been only provisionally approved by the MBC for malting and until they are fully approved demand is likely to be limited and so growers should speak to merchants to ensure there is a market before committing to them. Of these, LG Aquarius, which is provisionally approved for brewing and Trailblazer from Secobra, which is provisionally approved for brewing and malt distilling are highest yielding on 105%, Ptarmigan from Secobra, which is provisionally approved for brewing and malt distilling and SY Arrow, which is now an RAGT variety and is provisionally approved for brewing are on 103%. Roulette from Secobra, which is provisionally approved for brewing and malt distilling is on 101%. Nolan from Senova, and KWS Enduris which are provisionally approved for brewing and malt distilling are on 100% and 97% respectively.

Shona from Elsoms is under test for brewing and malt distilling and is recommended only for the East region is on 100%.

Three varieties have been withdrawn from the provisionally approved list of malting varieties. They will be reviewed in the autumn and may stay on the list as feed varieties if they are competitive in that market. Bounty from Agrovista and Firecracker from Secobra are on 101%, while Olsen from Limagrain is on 97%. All three are yielding well below their five-year averages at this stage.

The null-lox described variety CB Score is on 99%, while the described grain distilling variety Fairing is on 90%.

With just two fungicide-untreated trials reported so far it’s really too early to make any conclusions about variety performance in 2026. We await to see more data, but it may be that with low rainfall and high temperatures the fungicide-untreated trial yields this year have little relationship to disease resistance.

Five-year averages

The five-year average values provide a better representation of performance across seasons, especially for candidates. These yield figures are used in the selection of candidates to add to the RL in the autumn, along with disease resistance ratings, grain quality, agronomic characters and importantly for potential malting varieties, the view of the MBC on malting quality.

With just five fungicide-treated and two fungicide-untreated trials having reported so far the five-year average yields look very similar to the current RL.  The provisionally approved malting variety Trailblazer on 106%, takes the top spot in the fungicide-treated trials, with Roulette and SY Arrow, both also provisional approved, on 104%. Fully approved Belter and the now feed variety Bounty are also on 104%.

There are a group of varieties on 103%, provisionally approved Ptarmigan and LG Aquarius and under test Shona and the now feed variety Firecracker. Laureate leads a group of varieties on 102%, which also includes Firefoxx, Skyway and provisionally approved varieties Nolan and KWS Enduris.

Candidates

Data can only be shown for varieties that have been added to the GB and NI variety list. So far this is just one of the three candidates, LG Dynamo. Currently its fungicide-treated yield of 104% in both 2025 and in the five-year average is competitive with current varieties. It has a fungicide-untreated yield of 102% in the five-year average.

With three quarters of trials still to report all these results should be considered provisional. It is likely that as more trials report we will get more of a view of the impact of the hot dry summer on both yields and grain quality. We have not yet seen any data for the north and the picture might be quite different here.

Further information

Access full trial results via the AHDB website: ahdb.org.uk/harvestresults

AHDB Recommended Lists (RL) trials test variety performance under optimum conditions. Care should be taken when making comparisons with commercial yields. Results from individual trial sites should not be used to make conclusions on variety performance. The RL publications are based on information from trials across the UK over several seasons. As more information becomes available from the current harvest, this will contribute to the over-trials averages – which comprise four years for oilseeds and five years for cereals. These averages provide better information for comparison between varieties. Performance variation is not the responsibility of AHDB. Since the focus is to test new varieties, not all RL varieties are presented. Yields for well-established varieties are published at ahdb.org.uk/rl