Two new winter barley varieties – LG Casting and Valerie – have been added to the Department of Agriculture’s recommended list for 2020, as is Graham winter wheat and WPB Isabel oats.

Winter barley is now the biggest of the three crops and there are nine varieties recommended for planting this autumn. Seven are fully recommended and LG Casting and Valerie come in with provisional recommendation.

Recommended varieties

The recommended varieties are Bazooka, Belfry, KWS Cassia, KWS Infinity, KWS Kosmos, Pixel and Quadra. Bazooka, Belfry and Pixel were provisionally recommended last year. The variety Tower has been removed from the 2020 list.

There are six wheat varieties recommended.

Bennington, Costello, JB Diego, and Torp are fully recommended while KWS Conros remains provisionally recommended and Graham is new on to the list with provisional recommendation. The variety Garrus has been dropped from the list.

Graham has come on to the recommended list with a relative yield rating of 104.

There are also six varieties on the winter oats recommended list.

Delfin and RGT Southwark have been given full recommendation, having been provisionally recommended last year, and they join Barra, Husky and Keely as fully recommended.

WPB Isabel comes on to the list for 2020 with provisional recommendation.