Last week, Stephen Robb looked at the winter oilseed rape recommended list for 2020 planting. Most rapeseed growers will be aware that the recommended list for this crop does not include the current year’s results. This is because of the time needed to turn the information around, from harvesting to grinding the numbers to assembling all of the assessments for each variety.
So the specifics of the recommended list for planting this season are made up of results from 2017, 2018 and 2019.
The 2020 harvest results will advise next year’s recommended list. But, as with other crops, it is still important to be aware of what new varieties are coming down the track because the industry will have knowledge of what varieties it will supply long before growers will see the list.
As stated last week, the recommended varieties for this planting season are Alizze, Anastasia, Aquila, Dariot, PX113 and SY Harnas. Looking at one year from now, Dariot and PX113 will not feature on the list because the decision has already been made to not include them in the recommended list trials this year. This is not because there is anything wrong with either variety for this year but rather that the Irish agents have chosen to exclude them in favour of other new varieties that show more yield and/or better characteristics.
So what is coming down the track in terms of new winter rape varieties? My recent visit to the Department’s trial site in Backweston showed the main contenders in development. There are three candidate varieties up for possible recommendation in less than one year from now. These are DK Expansion, Hermione and SY Iowa.
The recommended list winter oilseed rape trial at Backweston.
Of the three, DK Expansion, a hybrid, is best known because it has been grown commercially in recent years. This is a Monsanto or Dekalb variety with high yield potential to date having yielded 112 and 110 in 2019 and 2018, respectively. It shows good autumn and spring vigour, flowers early and is early maturing. It has good resistance to phoma and light leafspot, combined with excellent pod-shatter resistance. It is a big bulker with good standing power.
Hermione is also a hybrid. In fact, almost all varieties being tested nowadays are hybrids. Hermione is bred by Momont and yielded 104 and 103 in the last two years in trials. It has slightly higher oil content than DK Expansion.
SY Iowa is also a hybrid and was bred by Syngenta. Oil content is similar to DK Expansion but its most recent yield were 106 and 104.
These are the varieties that are in contention for recommendation next season. However, there were a few other varieties further down the pipeline that are worth mentioning because of their different characteristics.
In the Goldcrop stable there are two new varieties from Limagrain which come with resistance to turnip yellows virus (TuVY). This could prove to be a much more useful trait than we might have thought because we could never measure it before now.
The two new varieties are Ambassador and Artemis. Both are high-yielding hybrids with yields in 2019 of 113 and 114, respectively. Both are in their second year in recommended list trials. This seems like an interesting trait to watch.
Alternative herbicide technology
The arrival of Clearfield herbicide technology to oilseed rape in recent years has brought an alternative option for the control of brassica weeds in a brassica crop. These herbicide tolerant varieties carry the letter “CL” at the end of their names to indicate the presence of this technology. Both Goldcrop and Seedtech have a new CL variety in testing.
DK Imprint from Goldcrop comes with better yield than the initial CL options. It is a fast-developing variety and so needs growth regulation in the autumn/spring as it is also naturally tall. Plurax CL comes through Seedtech and it is now gone into official trials. It also has rapid autumn growth but in relatively strong strawed.
Neither CL variety is quite up to the yield of the best varieties but in the weedy conditions in which they might be grown, they will likely out-yield the others where weeds cannot be controlled.
All of these trials and results show that oilseed rape technology in providing better varieties with more technology on board to overcome even more agronomic challenges.
Changing bean technology
New varieties are also bringing changes to the technology that will be available in beans. The 2020 results will form part of the recommended list for this crop for next spring. That list will not include Boxer, which has been recommended since 2016. There are two candidate varieties up for recommendation on the 2021 list. These are Caprice and Victus.
Both have been in official trials for the past two years with Caprice having yielded 104 and 103 in 2019 and 2018, respectively. Caprice was bred by Petersen in Germany and is handled by Goldcrop. Its yield performance to date has come from very contrasting years. It is tall but has very good lodging resistance. However, there will be no seed available until the 2022 planting season.
Victus was bred by NPZ Lembke in Germany. Its previous yields were 103 in 2019 and 111 in 2018. This is interesting because it seems that it was less affected by the heat and dryness of 2018 compared to other varieties in that type of year. So perhaps it can cope better with these stresses.
Victus has another useful characteristic – it has a low vicene-covicene ratio, which means it has a lower anti-nutritional factor and can be used in rations at higher concentrations.
My visit to Backweston did suggest that Victus may have more pods than many of the other varieties in trial. This might signal a repeat of 2018 for its relative performance.
We must now hope that this variety will offer a level of heat-proofing against the type of early growing seasons we have had in recent years. However, like Caprice, there will be no seed of Victus available.
One other variety that is worth a mention is one called Yucon. It is from the same breeder at Victus and its main characteristic is its earliness. This would be a desirable characteristic in a spring bean, but it may be coming with a penalty – early indications on yield are that it is on the low side. It also seems to have a fine mottling on its leaves which is not a very endearing characteristic.
There are a number of new winter oilseed and spring bean varieties in contention for recommendation for the 2022 recommended lists.New rape varieties are bringing new technologies such as Clearfield herbicide resistance and TuVY resistance. While we are unlikely to have new spring bean varieties recommended for next season, due to the absence of seed, it is interesting to note that some new varieties have lower levels of anti-nutritional constraints.
Last week, Stephen Robb looked at the winter oilseed rape recommended list for 2020 planting. Most rapeseed growers will be aware that the recommended list for this crop does not include the current year’s results. This is because of the time needed to turn the information around, from harvesting to grinding the numbers to assembling all of the assessments for each variety.
So the specifics of the recommended list for planting this season are made up of results from 2017, 2018 and 2019.
The 2020 harvest results will advise next year’s recommended list. But, as with other crops, it is still important to be aware of what new varieties are coming down the track because the industry will have knowledge of what varieties it will supply long before growers will see the list.
As stated last week, the recommended varieties for this planting season are Alizze, Anastasia, Aquila, Dariot, PX113 and SY Harnas. Looking at one year from now, Dariot and PX113 will not feature on the list because the decision has already been made to not include them in the recommended list trials this year. This is not because there is anything wrong with either variety for this year but rather that the Irish agents have chosen to exclude them in favour of other new varieties that show more yield and/or better characteristics.
So what is coming down the track in terms of new winter rape varieties? My recent visit to the Department’s trial site in Backweston showed the main contenders in development. There are three candidate varieties up for possible recommendation in less than one year from now. These are DK Expansion, Hermione and SY Iowa.
The recommended list winter oilseed rape trial at Backweston.
Of the three, DK Expansion, a hybrid, is best known because it has been grown commercially in recent years. This is a Monsanto or Dekalb variety with high yield potential to date having yielded 112 and 110 in 2019 and 2018, respectively. It shows good autumn and spring vigour, flowers early and is early maturing. It has good resistance to phoma and light leafspot, combined with excellent pod-shatter resistance. It is a big bulker with good standing power.
Hermione is also a hybrid. In fact, almost all varieties being tested nowadays are hybrids. Hermione is bred by Momont and yielded 104 and 103 in the last two years in trials. It has slightly higher oil content than DK Expansion.
SY Iowa is also a hybrid and was bred by Syngenta. Oil content is similar to DK Expansion but its most recent yield were 106 and 104.
These are the varieties that are in contention for recommendation next season. However, there were a few other varieties further down the pipeline that are worth mentioning because of their different characteristics.
In the Goldcrop stable there are two new varieties from Limagrain which come with resistance to turnip yellows virus (TuVY). This could prove to be a much more useful trait than we might have thought because we could never measure it before now.
The two new varieties are Ambassador and Artemis. Both are high-yielding hybrids with yields in 2019 of 113 and 114, respectively. Both are in their second year in recommended list trials. This seems like an interesting trait to watch.
Alternative herbicide technology
The arrival of Clearfield herbicide technology to oilseed rape in recent years has brought an alternative option for the control of brassica weeds in a brassica crop. These herbicide tolerant varieties carry the letter “CL” at the end of their names to indicate the presence of this technology. Both Goldcrop and Seedtech have a new CL variety in testing.
DK Imprint from Goldcrop comes with better yield than the initial CL options. It is a fast-developing variety and so needs growth regulation in the autumn/spring as it is also naturally tall. Plurax CL comes through Seedtech and it is now gone into official trials. It also has rapid autumn growth but in relatively strong strawed.
Neither CL variety is quite up to the yield of the best varieties but in the weedy conditions in which they might be grown, they will likely out-yield the others where weeds cannot be controlled.
All of these trials and results show that oilseed rape technology in providing better varieties with more technology on board to overcome even more agronomic challenges.
Changing bean technology
New varieties are also bringing changes to the technology that will be available in beans. The 2020 results will form part of the recommended list for this crop for next spring. That list will not include Boxer, which has been recommended since 2016. There are two candidate varieties up for recommendation on the 2021 list. These are Caprice and Victus.
Both have been in official trials for the past two years with Caprice having yielded 104 and 103 in 2019 and 2018, respectively. Caprice was bred by Petersen in Germany and is handled by Goldcrop. Its yield performance to date has come from very contrasting years. It is tall but has very good lodging resistance. However, there will be no seed available until the 2022 planting season.
Victus was bred by NPZ Lembke in Germany. Its previous yields were 103 in 2019 and 111 in 2018. This is interesting because it seems that it was less affected by the heat and dryness of 2018 compared to other varieties in that type of year. So perhaps it can cope better with these stresses.
Victus has another useful characteristic – it has a low vicene-covicene ratio, which means it has a lower anti-nutritional factor and can be used in rations at higher concentrations.
My visit to Backweston did suggest that Victus may have more pods than many of the other varieties in trial. This might signal a repeat of 2018 for its relative performance.
We must now hope that this variety will offer a level of heat-proofing against the type of early growing seasons we have had in recent years. However, like Caprice, there will be no seed of Victus available.
One other variety that is worth a mention is one called Yucon. It is from the same breeder at Victus and its main characteristic is its earliness. This would be a desirable characteristic in a spring bean, but it may be coming with a penalty – early indications on yield are that it is on the low side. It also seems to have a fine mottling on its leaves which is not a very endearing characteristic.
There are a number of new winter oilseed and spring bean varieties in contention for recommendation for the 2022 recommended lists.New rape varieties are bringing new technologies such as Clearfield herbicide resistance and TuVY resistance. While we are unlikely to have new spring bean varieties recommended for next season, due to the absence of seed, it is interesting to note that some new varieties have lower levels of anti-nutritional constraints. 
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