The spring cereal recommended lists have been released by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
The lists, which detail the varieties most suited to growing in Ireland, are compiled from data collected from the Department’s 14 trial sites from across the country.
As you look through the commentary and the tables, examine what varieties suit your farming system best.
Are you close to the coast in a high disease area?
Do you sell a lot of straw? Have you your own combine? Are you aiming for a premium market?
All of these factors can be addressed by examining the lists carefully.
Spring barley
A massive 12 varieties have filled the spring barley recommended list for 2026.
This matches last year’s record. There are some changes to those varieties and of course changes to ratings, see Table 1.
Belter has been added to the list and growers will no doubt be eager to find out if it lives up to the name.
Belter.\ Claire Nash
The well-liked variety Gangway has been removed from the list after seven years.
There is no seed availability listed for Gangway by the Department. A full list of seed availability can be seen in Table 2.
Hurler tops the list for yield with a score of 104. New variety Belter is on 102, along with LG Mermaid, Lollipop, Skyway and SY Amity, while a number of varieties hit 101.
LG Mermaid. \ Donal O'Leary
Rockway (99) and RGT Planet (98) fall below the 100 mark.
The relative yield is expressed as a percentage of the average yield of RGT Planet and SY Amity which is 8.25t/ha (3.34t/ac) at 15% moisture content.
Yields
The relative yield scores have come down significantly since 2025 across all varieties as the scores are based on three years of yields.
There are plenty of varieties with good resistance to lodging with scores of seven for Florence, Gretchen, Geraldine, Gretchen, Hurler and SY Amity.
Florence. \ Donal O'Leary
Florence is the only variety to score a seven for straw breakdown, but there are plenty of scores of six.
If you are planting something with a score of four for straw breakdown, you will need your own combine. The varieties don’t vary hugely on earliness of ripening, but if you have a lot to cut, try to mix it up a little bit.
Disease resistance
All varieties have great resistance to mildew thanks to the MLO gene. Rhychosporium resistance has also improved dramatically in recent years with a large number of varieties scoring a seven for resistance to rhynchosporium.
Watch Planet for disease profile with low scores for rhynchosporium, brown rust and net blotch.
Florence also falls down on brown rust.
Net blotch has become a prominent disease in spring barley once again in recent years, but there are big difference in some varieties.
As mentioned earlier Planet is poor on diseases, but Florence, Rockway all fall to a six on net blotch as well, compared to scores of eight for the remaining varieties.
Disease control
On disease resistance scores it is important to note that we have good fungicides for spring barley diseases, so a lower disease score does not have to be a big issue, but you have to be closely watching crops to keep the diseases under control in these varieties.
Lower disease score and straw breakdown scores can result in higher plant protection spends.
LG Mermaid. \ Donal O'Leary
Hurler and Lollipop, both first listed in 2025, have the best disease resistance profiles of the 12 varieties with scores of eight for all but brown rust, which they also have the highest scores for.
Grain quality
Rockway comes out on top for hectolitre weight or KPH at 68.7, Skyway is close behind at 68.5, followed by LG Mermaid at 68.2. All varieties score well on KPH, but be careful if growing for malting and choose the highest among them where it is possible.
Lollipop tops the lot for thousand grain weight (TGW) at 60. SY Amity follows at 56.5, Gretchen at 56.2 and Belter at 56.1.
Screenings are low across the board. LG Mermaid has the highest level, so keep an eye on that if you are trying to reach malting standards. Protein contents are similar across the board.
Malting varieties
The Department also has an information list on malting varieties. The data for this list comes from four malting barley trial sites around the country.
The list includes: Florence, Laureate, LG Mermaid, RGT Planet and SY Amity.
SY Amity. \ Patrick Browne
SY Amity tops the yield score. The control yield in this trial is lower than the main list at 7.86t/ha (3.2t/ac). The figures differ from the main list. One thing very noticeable is the higher levels of screenings, although still within range.
The spring cereal recommended lists have been released by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
The lists, which detail the varieties most suited to growing in Ireland, are compiled from data collected from the Department’s 14 trial sites from across the country.
As you look through the commentary and the tables, examine what varieties suit your farming system best.
Are you close to the coast in a high disease area?
Do you sell a lot of straw? Have you your own combine? Are you aiming for a premium market?
All of these factors can be addressed by examining the lists carefully.
Spring barley
A massive 12 varieties have filled the spring barley recommended list for 2026.
This matches last year’s record. There are some changes to those varieties and of course changes to ratings, see Table 1.
Belter has been added to the list and growers will no doubt be eager to find out if it lives up to the name.
Belter.\ Claire Nash
The well-liked variety Gangway has been removed from the list after seven years.
There is no seed availability listed for Gangway by the Department. A full list of seed availability can be seen in Table 2.
Hurler tops the list for yield with a score of 104. New variety Belter is on 102, along with LG Mermaid, Lollipop, Skyway and SY Amity, while a number of varieties hit 101.
LG Mermaid. \ Donal O'Leary
Rockway (99) and RGT Planet (98) fall below the 100 mark.
The relative yield is expressed as a percentage of the average yield of RGT Planet and SY Amity which is 8.25t/ha (3.34t/ac) at 15% moisture content.
Yields
The relative yield scores have come down significantly since 2025 across all varieties as the scores are based on three years of yields.
There are plenty of varieties with good resistance to lodging with scores of seven for Florence, Gretchen, Geraldine, Gretchen, Hurler and SY Amity.
Florence. \ Donal O'Leary
Florence is the only variety to score a seven for straw breakdown, but there are plenty of scores of six.
If you are planting something with a score of four for straw breakdown, you will need your own combine. The varieties don’t vary hugely on earliness of ripening, but if you have a lot to cut, try to mix it up a little bit.
Disease resistance
All varieties have great resistance to mildew thanks to the MLO gene. Rhychosporium resistance has also improved dramatically in recent years with a large number of varieties scoring a seven for resistance to rhynchosporium.
Watch Planet for disease profile with low scores for rhynchosporium, brown rust and net blotch.
Florence also falls down on brown rust.
Net blotch has become a prominent disease in spring barley once again in recent years, but there are big difference in some varieties.
As mentioned earlier Planet is poor on diseases, but Florence, Rockway all fall to a six on net blotch as well, compared to scores of eight for the remaining varieties.
Disease control
On disease resistance scores it is important to note that we have good fungicides for spring barley diseases, so a lower disease score does not have to be a big issue, but you have to be closely watching crops to keep the diseases under control in these varieties.
Lower disease score and straw breakdown scores can result in higher plant protection spends.
LG Mermaid. \ Donal O'Leary
Hurler and Lollipop, both first listed in 2025, have the best disease resistance profiles of the 12 varieties with scores of eight for all but brown rust, which they also have the highest scores for.
Grain quality
Rockway comes out on top for hectolitre weight or KPH at 68.7, Skyway is close behind at 68.5, followed by LG Mermaid at 68.2. All varieties score well on KPH, but be careful if growing for malting and choose the highest among them where it is possible.
Lollipop tops the lot for thousand grain weight (TGW) at 60. SY Amity follows at 56.5, Gretchen at 56.2 and Belter at 56.1.
Screenings are low across the board. LG Mermaid has the highest level, so keep an eye on that if you are trying to reach malting standards. Protein contents are similar across the board.
Malting varieties
The Department also has an information list on malting varieties. The data for this list comes from four malting barley trial sites around the country.
The list includes: Florence, Laureate, LG Mermaid, RGT Planet and SY Amity.
SY Amity. \ Patrick Browne
SY Amity tops the yield score. The control yield in this trial is lower than the main list at 7.86t/ha (3.2t/ac). The figures differ from the main list. One thing very noticeable is the higher levels of screenings, although still within range.
SHARING OPTIONS