Spring oats recommended list

Recommended List spring oat harvest results, yield and quality both significantly down

• Yield of control varieties in fungicide-treated trials is 5.18 t/ha, which his 1.93 t/ha below the 5-year average
• Yield of control varieties in fungicide-untreated trials is 5.69 t/ha, which his 0.98 t/ha below the 5-year average
• Grain quality is poor, with specific weight and kernel content lower than last year and sieving’s are up

Results for seven fungicide-treated spring oat RL trials and five fungicide-untreated trials are now available. Results are still awaited for one trial in Northern Ireland and another in Northern Scotland. The average yield of control varieties in the fungicide-treated trials is 5.18 t/ha, which is 1.93 t/ha below the five-year average of 7.11 t/ha. Yield of control varieties in fungicide-untreated trials is 5.69 t/ha, which his 0.98 t/ha below the 5-year average of 6.67 t/ha. The average of the fungicide-untreated trials is higher than the fungicide-treated because the fungicide-treated average includes two very low yielding sites where there was not a fungicide-untreated trial. The fungicide-treated results are notable for being lower than the 2025 yields, which were already low because of the drought in 2025. While yields in the Scottish trials have held up, yields in the southern trials are very low, with control varieties in the trial in Hampshire managing only 2.44 t/ha.

Calculating yield results

Yields are represented as a percentage of the control varieties. In 2026 Canyon, WPB Isabel and Merlin are the control varieties. The average yield from these varieties is represented as 100%.

2026 results

Like many commercial spring crops RL trials have suffered from the drought and heat this spring and summer. Despite this none have been lost due to drought, with low, but uniform yields in trials.

With a relatively small number of oat trials and high LSDs care should be taken not to overinterpret the results from one year. Good performance in 2026 is not necessarily a sign of drought tolerance nor vice versa.  For instance, the highest yielding variety in fungicide-treated trials so far in 2026 is WPB Isabel on 105% of controls, but in the dry summer of 2025 it performed poorly.

Second highest yielding in 2026 is Caledon on 101%, with newly recommended varieties Jacky and Neptun just behind on 100%. Merlin is on 98%, with Canyon and Conway on 97%. Asterion is on 93% and does seem to have struggled at some of the low yielding sites, though not at others.

The naked varieties Oliver (73%) and Lennon (70%) have yielded relatively well, equal to or above their five-year averages in 2026.

In fungicide-untreated trials newly recommended Caledon (105%) is highest yielding, reflecting its good disease resistance ratings and high yield potential. Newly recommended Jacky is on 103%, with newly recommended Neptun and Merlin on 101%. WPB Isabel is on 100%.

The naked varieties Lennon (67%) and Oliver (61%) have yielded just below their five-year averages.

Five-year average

The five-year average yield is a better measure of variety performance over seasons, especially with smaller datasets like spring oats.

On this measure, Caledon is highest yielding in the fungicide-treated trials (103%) just ahead of newly recommended Jacky (102%) with newly recommended Neptun, Merlin and WPB Isabel on 101%.  Canyon is on 99%, with Asterion on 98% and with Conway on 94%.

Oliver is the higher yielding of the naked varieties (71%) Lennon is on 70%.

In the fungicide-untreated trials Caledon is highest yielding (107%), with newly recommended Jacky on 105%, newly recommended Neptun and Merlin are on 103% with Asterion and Canyon on 102%. Lennon (69%) is the higher yielding of the naked varieties, with Oliver on 62%.

Candidate varieties

Oat varieties have two years in trial as RL candidates before being considered for addition to the Recommended List. The five-year average yield is a better measure of variety performance over seasons for candidates.

Four candidate varieties are in trial this year. Clyde is the only one of these varieties in its second candidate year. It will be considered for recommendation in November. In the fungicide-treated trials it is on 101% of controls. Though it is the highest yielding variety of 2026 so far on 106%. In fungicide-untreated trials it is on 100%.

Three varieties are in their first candidate year and so will not be eligible for recommendation until November 2027.  Vision is the highest yielding of these in fungicide-treated trials (103%), with RGT Hamilton and Osprey just behind on 102%. In fungicide-untreated trials Vision is again highest yielding (104%) with Osprey on 103% and RGT Hamilton some way back on 97%.

With oats grain quality is key. In a difficult year for quality Clyde appears to be matching the currently recommended varieties on quality. Vision too seems to be matching current varieties, while RGT Hamilton and Osprey have perhaps slightly better kernel content, with RGT Hamilton also having very low sieving’s. However, all the quality data is based on a small number of trials and so caution should be exercised when considering this data.

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