The new-look AHDB Recommended List (RL) for oilseed rape welcomes six new varieties, including three top-yielding hybrids from the same breeder and a conventional with substantial yield gains.

Limagrain’s trio of hybrids – Armada, Academic and Adeline – take the top three spots of the highest-yielding winter oilseed rape in the UK, while Pinnacle hits the ranks as the joint highest-yielding conventional for the UK.

Breeder DSV also brings two new varieties to the table. Recommended for the East/West region is hybrid Dolphin and a new Clearfield variety for the North, Miraculix CL.

See also: Grower moves to direct-drilled OSR and companion crops

Also new to this year’s list is the introduction of a verticillium stem stripe resistance rating. Varieties are rated as either susceptible (S), moderately resistant (MR) or intermediate of the two (I). Those rated as moderate are significantly different to susceptible.

Phoma stem canker ratings have been “reset” to correct a drift in the ratings over recent years. As a result, ratings have generally fallen.

Top-ranking hybrids

New variety Armada takes lead position for the UK at 107%, while Academic and Adeline follow 1% behind at 106%. Armada tops the charts for the East/West, while Adeline takes pole position of the northern recommendations with an impressive yield of 108%.

All have high yields and good disease resistance, with a score of 7 for light leaf spot and 6 for stem canker, including turnip yellows virus (TuYV) and pod shatter resistance.

Scores are measured on a 1-9 scale, where high values indicate the variety shows the characteristic to a high degree.

Jim Knightbraid, seed business development manager at agronomy group Frontier, explains: “It is another strong showing from Limagrain with three new hybrids all with similar gross output and strong disease resistance. Growers are spoilt for choice.”

“There is little between them. Armada has a similar growth habit to Ambassador, whereas Adeline has similar properties to Antigua and offers a wider drilling window.”

“However, if I was to pick one of the three, Adeline tips it with its strong ability to perform across all regions in the UK, particularly the North, and is suited to early drilling.”

Armada and Adeline both come with an 8 for lodging resistance, but Academic falls slightly behind with a resistance rating of 7.9. However, all three do not currently have a verticillium rating.

Jim adds: “Murry and Vegas from LSPB remain a step ahead in terms of disease resistance and overall stem health with the RLMS phoma resistance gene,” with a joint score of 7 for light leaf spot and a score of 8 and 9, respectively for stem canker.

Niab oilseeds specialist Colin Peters adds: “The three Limagrain additions are a continuation of a good strong package, but one potential weakness is they do not offer any additional phoma resistance – just the RLM7 gene.”

It is worth noting that Adeline is not currently on the GB and NI variety lists, but will be added in January 2024, provided no representations are received.

Ambassador also changes from a UK recommended variety to an East/West recommendation.

Pinnacle

“Pinnacle, the top-yielding conventional oilseed rape variety for the East/West at 103%, is a step forward in terms of yield and gross output compared with previous conventionals,” says Beckii Gibbs, seed sales manager at United Oilseeds.

With a gross output of 102% for the UK, it matches previous top-ranked conventional Tom and sits comfortably above Annika and Acacia at 99% and 98%, respectively. Acacia drops 3% from last season’s RL to 98%.

“Pinnacle is a solid variety on yield, but it is susceptible to stem canker with the joint lowest rating of 4. It does not have pod shatter or TuYV resistance, but comes with a good light leaf spot score of 7,” says Colin.

© Pinnacle

Pinnacle has high resistance to lodging, ranked 8, and has a top rating of 9 for stem stiffness.

Beckii continues: “It has been selected for a large thousand grain weight, helping it to establish quickly. It also produces a lot of long pods containing a high number of seeds.”

What’s more, the variety is bred in the UK by independent Cotswold plant breeder Mike Pickford and boasts similar vigour to many hybrids.

Neil Groom, manager at seed distributor Grainseed, adds: “Pinnacle’s seed costs are lower than hybrids, so if growers are looking to reduce costs, growing a high-performing conventional variety can help.”

Dolphin

Specifically recommended for the East/West, new DSV hybrid Dolphin gives a high treated gross output of 106%, which matches Armada, Academic, Adeline and Turing.

“It has a good to very good resistance to stem canker, with a ranking of 7 and what DSV describes as the RLM7+ phoma resistance gene. It also has a 6 for light leaf spot,” says Colin.

Furthermore, Dolphin is one of seven varieties with moderate resistance to verticillium and comes with TuYV resistance. It boasts an 8 for lodging resistance.

However, it is not pod shatter resistant and is a relatively late-maturing variety, which could be challenging if growers get caught up in a catchy harvest like last year, explains Colin.

Miraculix CL

New Clearfield hybrid variety Miraculix from DSV, recommended for its tolerance to specific imidazolinone herbicides, offers the highest gross output for the northern region.

“Breeder DSV dominates the Clearfield variety list, with Matrix, Beatrix and now Miraculix ranked the top three for gross output. All have similar disease ratings, but what sets Miraculix apart is its highest output of 96% for the North,” says Jim.

It matches Matrix with a 7 for stem canker resistance and Beatrix’s light leaf spot score of 5.

Miraculix is a relatively tall variety, but comes with a lodging of 7.9 (joint highest of the Clearfields).

“The variety is very good for stem canker resistance, but poor for light leaf spot. It is also relatively early maturing with full resistance to pod shatter and TuYV,” says Colin.

The following varieties have been removed from the RL: Respect, Antigua, Flemming, Expectation, Imprint CL, PT279CL, V 316 OL and Crossfit.

New-look list

In addition to the new verticillium stem stripe resistance scores, the OSR list has been reorganised to group the varieties by type (rather than by region).

AHDB says this is in response to feedback during the RL review.