Commentary covers harvest 2023 trials. Commentary for the current year will be available after the initial harvest 2024 trials have been validated and published.

Spring wheat

Recommended List spring wheat trials giving high yields in 2024

Harvest Results are now available from four of the six fungicide-treated RL spring wheat trial sites – Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. One trial in Suffolk has been rejected for yield assessments due to gout fly and a trial in Lincolnshire has still to report its results.

The average yield of control varieties is 8.89 t/ha, well above the five-year average of 7.45 t/ha, reflecting the relatively good conditions for spring cereals this year.

Calculating yield results

Yields are represented as a percentage of the control varieties. In 2024, the control varieties are UKFM Group 1 variety KWS Ladum, UKFM Group 2 variety KWS Cochise and group 4 variety Hexham, though Hexham is no longer on the RL. The average yield from these varieties is represented as 100%.

2024 results

With a small number of trials in spring wheat there needs to be some caution exercised in comparisons between varieties. Having said that, the highest yielding variety in 2024 is the UKFM Group 2 variety KWS Alicium (106%) with newly recommended WPB Mylo the second highest yielding UKFM Group 2 variety (103%). Further UKFM Group 2s KWS Lightum (102%) and KWS Cochise (101%) are just behind. UKFM Group 1 KWS Harsum (103%) is highest yielding in 2024, well ahead of KWS Ladum (99%), Nissaba (95%) and Mulika (92%). The two feed varieties, newly recommended Everlong and KWS Fixum are both on 104%.

There are a large number of candidate spring wheat varieties in trial this year and they have shown mixed fortunes on yield. Potential bread making varieties KWS Bezique (107%) and KWS Jordum (106%) are the two highest yielding varieties in trial in 2024. Both look a little lower on protein in 2024, but both have produced good specific weight. WPB Lynx (101%) and STR Osprey (100%) are also potential bread making varieties and seem to have good grain quality, though both have performed below their five-year average on yield this year. Two potential feed candidates Ophelia (104%) and WPB Fraser (103%) are also in trial this year.

Five-year average

The five-year average is a better measure of variety performance, especially with so few spring wheat trials each year.

On this basis, the newly recommended Group 4 variety Everlong is highest yielding on 105% of controls, just ahead of the other group 4 variety KWS Fixum and UKFM Group 2 variety KWS Alicium, both on 104%. Second highest yielding UKFM Group 2 variety is newly recommended WPB Mylo (102%) with KWS Lightum on 100% and KWS Cochise on 99%. The UKFM group 1 varieties are lower yielding, as you would expect, with KWS Harsum on 101%, KWS Ladum on 99% and Nissaba and Mulika on 94%

The candidates are best judged on the five-year dataset and on this measure the two potential bread making varieties WPB Lynx and KWS Bezique, both on 105%, are doing particularly well. With KWS Jordum (104%) and STR Osprey (102%) also potential bread making varieties yielding well. The two candidate group 4 hard feed varieties WPB Fraser (105%) and Ophelia (104%) are also doing well on yield.

With one trial still to report details could change, but these results give a good indication of relative variety performance.

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