High yielding wheat and barley varieties offer good quality too

Winter wheat LG Beowulf and winter barley LG Caravelle are the highest yielding varieties to join the 2024/25 AHDB Recommended List.

Both by plant breeder Limagrain, they join LG Armada which is the highest yielding oilseed rape variety on the UK Recommended List.

In addition, high yielding maize variety Saxon tops the 2024 BSPB Forage Maize Descriptive List.

Group 4 hard wheat LG Beowulf yields 106% across the UK. It shows the same consistency across all regions: east (106%), west (106%) and the north (107%) – described by Limagrain arable technical manager Ron Granger as an outstanding achievement.

LG Beowulf also performed consistently well in the unusually dry summer of 2022 as well as during the exceptionally wet summer of 2023. Alongside high yields, it offered a good grain quality, with a spec weight of 78.3kg/hl, said Mr Granger.

“LG Beowulf is much like LG Skyscraper; it performs wherever you grow it. It can be drilled early or late – providing growers with a wide drilling window, as a first or second wheat, on light or heavy land, and there are very few varieties that meet this criterion.”

LG Beowulf yields are backed up by a set of strong agronomic characteristics – including its disease resistance profile. It is rated 9 for yellow rust and 6.7 for septoria, as well having orange wheat blossom midge (OWBM) resistance.

It has very stiff straw and is rated 8 for standing in untreated and PGR treated trials, which strongly contributes to its reliability on farm, said Mr Granger.

“In summary, LG Beowulf is a very high yielding, robust and versatile variety that comes at a time when growers are looking more than ever to maximise output to maintain profit in times of increasing costs.”

Winter barley

LG Caravelle is the highest yielding two-row winter barley for the second year running, since joining the Recommended List in 2023. It is competitive in a blackgrass situation – another characteristic that is normally associated with hybrids.

“Offering UK yields of 105.6%, LG Caravelle continues to dispel any misconception that two row barleys are lower yielding than hybrids,” says Mr Granger. “The variety certainly competes with the best yielding hybrid barleys, especially in the east.”

Again, LG Caravelle’s high yields are backed up by an excellent disease profile, added Mr Granger. This was reflected in its superb untreated performance, he explained. It is early maturing with stiff straw and good brackling resistance.

“LG Caravelle also offers an exceptionally high specific weight for a winter barley, of 71.4 kg/hl combined with low screenings percentage. In fact, LG Caravelle possesses all of the key characteristics for a winter barley.”

LG Capitol is a two-row winter barley that joins the Recommended List this year and is a sister variety to LG Caravelle, offering similar yields and consistency of performance over seasons and regions.

Its yield sits just 0.1% behind that of LG Caravelle, at 105.5%.

Oilseed rape

The top three highest yielding oilseed rape varieties on the 2024/25 AHDB Recommended List all come from the Limagrain stable – once again offering growers consistency across regions and during different seasons.

LG Armada tops the UK and east-west List at 107%. LG Academic follows 1% behind at 106%, with LG Adeline taking pole position on the Northern List with an outstanding yield of 108.3%, says Limagrain oilseeds product manager Liam Wilkinson.

“LG Armada is one of the next generation of versatile high yielding oilseed rape varieties, improving on the characteristic trait loaded-hybrids that growers have come to expect from Limagrain,” he explains.

“It has strong autumn vigour, is robust, with good adaptability to all regions of the UK. LG Armada is the first of our seventh generation of hybrids, bringing new maintainer and restorer lines to our portfolio.

“This effectively means we are bringing varieties to market offering a stacked portfolio of much improved stem health attributes, alongside the standard pod shatter, TuYV and RLM7 resistance traits.

“We know stem health is key to driving consistent oilseed rape yields across farms and with these seventh-generation hybrids, we are seeing bigger stems and better rooting which also results in higher oil content.”