Winter oilseed rape recommended and candidate lists

Recommended List winter oilseed rape harvest results complete, with yield unremarkable

RL winter oilseed rape yield results from the ten fungicide-treated trials that survived through to harvest are now available.  Average yield of the control varieties at 4.92 t/ha is close to the four-year average of 5.05 t/ha but variable compared with normal. The lowest yielding trial this year is in Midlothian (control average 3.58 t/ha) and highest yielding two trials in Cambridgeshire, where the controls yielded 6.08 t/ha.

The 2023-2024 season has been a difficult one for winter oilseed rape, both commercially and in RL trials, with nine of nineteen fungicide-treated trials abandoned and six out of seven fungicide-untreated RL trials abandoned. Flea beetle, pigeon grazing, clubroot and flooding impacted trials and often there was a combination of different challenges that led to a trial being abandoned. Very high levels of light leaf spot were seen in some fungicide-treated Scottish trials, showing how difficult the disease can be to control in susceptible varieties, though overall phoma and light leaf spot levels were similar to 2023 across all trials.

As only one fungicide-untreated trial has survived through to harvest this data will not be published, as single trial results could be misleading as to variety performance under a range of different conditions, thought the data will be included in over-year analyses.

Average yields

Yields are reported as a gross output, which is the seed yield adjusted for oil content. The values are represented as a percentage of the control varieties which for 2024 are Turing, Aspire, Aurelia, Ambassador and PT303.

2024 trial yields

The difficult conditions in 2024 have resulted in more variability in the data than normal and some varieties have performed quite differently this year to their over-year performance. As a result, the 2024 results should be treated with some caution, hopefully we won’t get another year like this one!

Given that note of caution, the highest yielding hybrid varieties this year are newly recommended LG Academic alongside Turing, both on 106% in line with expectations. Just behind these are a group of varieties on 105%, Vegas, newly recommended variety LG Adeline, Aurelia, newly recommended variety LG Armada and East/West variety LG Auckland. Aurelia has done especially well, yielding 4% above its over-year average.

Other hybrids have performed in line with expectations, the exception being newly recommended East/West variety Dolphin (95%) which has struggled at some sites.

Pi Pinnacle is the highest yielding of the conventional varieties this year (102%) with Tom on 98% alongside the N only variety Amarone also on 98%, well ahead of its four-year average. Annika (E/W) on 97% and Acacia (UK) on 96% are next highest yielding of the conventional varieties with Asire on 93%.

Clubroot resistant East/West variety Crocodile and UK variety Crome have both finished on 92% well below their five-year average.  Thought their value is in clubroot infected sites.

Like the clubroot resistant varieties, the herbicide-tolerant varieties are well below their four-year averages in 2024.  Matrix CL (UK) on 90% is highest yielding with newly recommended Miraculix CL (N) on 88% and Beatrix CL (N) on 85%.  

2021–24 averages

Four-year averages are a better indicator of overall performance. Based on the four-year average values, the highest yielding variety is the hybrid variety Turing (106%) just ahead of the three newly recommended UK hybrid varieties LG Armada, LG Academic and LG Adeline, all on 105%. Murray (E/W) and Vegas (UK) are on 104% with newly recommended Dolphin (E/W) and LG Auckland (E/W) on 103%.

Of the conventional varieties, newly recommended variety Pi Pinnacle is highest yielding on 101%, with Tom just behind on 100% and Annika (E/W) on 98%.

Crocodile (E/W) is the highest yielding clubroot resistant variety (97%) with Crome (UK) on 94%.

Of the herbicide-tolerant varieties, Miraculix CL and Beatrix CL (both N varieties) are on 94% with Matrix CL (UK) just behind on 93%.       

Candidate varieties

Candidate varieties are best judged on their over-year performance. Data can only be shown for candidates that have been added to the GB and NI Variety List (VL).

Maverick is highest yielding of the candidate varieties already on the VL at 108%, with Churchill and LE21/456 on 103%. 

There are three clubroot resistant candidates this year. Crusoe is highest yielding (103%), with Cromputer on 99% and Cromat on 97%, though interestingly, like the currently recommended clubroot resistant varieties all have underperformed on yield in 2024. 

The single conventional candidate variety on the VL, Powerhouse is on 99%.

Further results

Though all trials have now reported, harvest results will be updated as candidate varieties are added to the GB and NI Variety Lists and the data becomes available to publish. For candidate varieties to be added to the RL this year they must be added to the VL by the 21 November.