Spring barley recommended and candidate lists

Latest Recommended List spring barley harvest results bring better news from northern trials

• Yields from six further fungicide-treated spring barley trials have brought the average up to 7.47 t/ha, just below the five-year average
• Yields from just one more fungicide-untreated trial is available, yields are below the five-year average

Yields from 11 of the 20 Recommended List fungicide-treated spring barley trials are now available. Results from new trials in Staffordshire, Fife, Perth and Kinross, Highland Scotland and two trials in Angus have pulled the trial average up, with controls yielding 7.47 t/ha, just 0.16 t/ha below the five-year average.

Just one more fungicide-untreated trial, from Angus is available. Average yield of the control varieties is 5.66 t/ha, below the five-year average of 6.31 t/ha with the new trial low yielding, despite only very low levels of disease, perhaps suffering from its later drilling date.

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 on trials in the South and East of England. Though establishment was generally even, plant populations have been low, with weak tillering, limiting yield potential. These new results show that conditions further north and west have been much more favourable with lower temperatures and more rainfall producing generally 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 SY Arrow, which is now an RAGT variety and is now fully approved for malt distilling, though still provisional for brewing, it is on 104%. Just behind is Skyway on 103%, with Belter, which is now fully approved for both brewing and malt distilling also on 103%. Firefoxx is on 102%, with Laureate on 101%. SY Tennyson is now on 100%. RGT Planet and LG Diablo are both on 97%. KWS Sassy has performed better in these new northern trials, where commercially it is mostly grown, but on 81% overall it is still well behind its five-year average. Poor plant populations were noted for KWS Sassy across trials during inspections, which likely accounts for the low yield.

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, newly recommended Trailblazer from Secobra, which is provisionally approved for brewing and malt distilling is highest yielding on 106%. Ptarmigan, also from Secobra, which is provisionally approved for brewing and malt distilling is on 105%. LG Aquarius, which is provisionally approved for brewing is on 104%. Roulette from Secobra, and KWS Enduris which are provisionally approved for brewing and malt distilling are on 102%. Nolan from Senova, which is provisionally approved for brewing and malt distilling is on 100%.

Shona from Elsoms is under test for brewing and malt distilling and is recommended only for the East region is on 101%.

The null-lox described variety CB Score is on 101%, while the described grain distilling variety Fairing is on 92%.

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 is on 103%, with Firecracker from Secobra on 102%, while Olsen from Limagrain is on 99%. All three are yielding below their five-year averages at this stage.

With just three of the seven fungicide-untreated trials reported so far it’s really too early to make any conclusions about variety performance in 2026. However, varieties with high fungicide-untreated yields on the current Recommended List are also highest yielding in 2026. Fully approved Belter is on 106%, with provisionally approved Roulette and Trailblazer also on 106%. Provisionally approved Ptarmigan is on 105%. Market leader Laureate is just behind these on 104%. Highest yielding in these trials though is Firecracker (107%) which is no longer under test for malting and will be reconsidered as a feed variety in the autumn and may stay on the list as a feed variety.

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.

The five-year average yields generally look very similar to the current RL, though there are some differences.  The provisionally approved malting variety Trailblazer on 106%, takes the top spot in the fungicide-treated trials, with SY Arrow and Belter and provisional approved Roulette and Ptarmigan on 104%. Provisionally approved LG Aquarius is on 103%, while Shona, which his still under test for brewing and malt distilling is also on 103%, showing better results in the East region, where it is recommended. Market leader Laureate is just behind these on 102% alongside a large group of varieties which also includes Firefoxx, Skyway and provisionally approved varieties Nolan and KWS Enduris.

Bounty, which is no longer under test for malting is on 105%, with Firecracker, also no longer under test for malting on 103%.

In the fungicide-untreated trials provisionally approved variety Roulette is highest yielding on 108%, alongside Firecracker, which is no longer under test for malting. Fully approved Belter and provisionally approved Ptarmigan are on 106%.

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 105% makes it very competitive with current varieties. It has a fungicide-untreated yield of 102% in the five-year average.

With half of trials still to report all these results should be treated with caution. Trials form both the North and the East are yet to report and relative yields and ranking of varieties could still change.

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