The first Harvest Results for AHDB Recommended List (RL) winter wheat trials, including five treated sites from Devon, Essex, North Yorkshire (x2) and Suffolk, are showing yields ahead of the five-year average.
The average yield of control varieties in these trials stands at 12.50 tonnes/hectare, 1.19t/ha above the five-year average.
Yields are represented as a percentage of the control varieties.
In 2019, KWS Santiago, Skyfall, KWS Barrel, KWS Siskin and Elation are the control varieties.
The yield average from these varieties is represented as 100%.
In 2019, the group 4 varieties LG Skyscraper (soft) and KWS Kerrin (hard) lead the way at 106%, followed by LG Spotlight (soft) and Graham (hard), both with a yield of 105%.
Yield isn’t everything with quality wheats but the top yielding nabim Group 1 bread variety is Crusoe (100%), KWS Siskin is the highest yielding nabim Group 2 bread wheat (102%) and KWS Firefly and KWS Barrel lead the nabim Group 3 biscuit yields (102%).
Current good performers, based on five-year average yields alone, include the soft group 4 varieties LG Skyscraper (105%) and LG Spotlight (103%) as well as the hard group 4 varieties RGT Gravity (103%), Gleam (103%) and KWS Kerrin (103%).
Based on these figures, the highest yielding nabim Group 1 variety is KWS Zyatt (99%).
The nabim Group 2 varieties with the highest yields are KWS Siskin (100%) and KWS Extase (100%).
For nabim Group 3, KWS Firefly and KWS Barrel, both with a yield of 101%, have highest yields for the group.
Looking at the five-year averages, the group 4 candidates are performing well on yield: KWS Kinetic (hard, 104%), LG Graduate (soft, 103%), KWS Parkin (hard, 102%), RGT Lantern (hard, 101%), Elysium (soft, 101%) and Theodore (hard, 100%).
The potential bread-making variety RGT Blossom (99%) is also performing well on yield.
As more information becomes available, a clearer pattern of variety performance in 2019 will develop.