Syngenta’s four new high yielding cereal varieties added to AHDB Recommended Lists in UK

Farmers will have four new high yielding cereal varieties from Syngenta to choose from on the new AHDB Recommended Lists – two new winter feed wheats, a new hybrid winter feed barley, and a new spring malting barley.

All four occupy distinct positions in the cereals market, says Syngenta seed and seed treatment manager, Samantha Brooke. The new lists also mark Syngenta’s continued expansion into the winter wheat market, she says, alongside the company’s established breeding expertise in hybrid barley and spring barley.

Two new winter wheats

“The first of our new high yielding winter feed wheats is the hard endosperm variety Shabras,” says Mrs Brooke.

“Like the popular hard winter feed wheat Graham, which we launched earlier this year, Shabras also has good disease resistance and a high untreated yield and is quite early maturing. However, what differentiates Shabras is that it is for later drilling. As a quick developing variety it doesn’t want to be planted early, so is quite a traditional wheat in that regard. Shabras also looks good in the second cereal position,” she adds.

Meanwhile, Syngenta’s second new winter feed wheat on the AHDB Recommended List, Savello, differs from Shabras in being a soft endosperm variety, Mrs Brooke points out.

“What is particularly appealing about Savello is that it has been accepted for distilling, and is very high yielding in the North – an area noted for distilling. So it looks an exciting option for the North region,” she adds.

New hybrid barley

In the winter feed barley sector, a new Syngenta hybrid, Hyvido® Sunningdale, joins Syngenta’s three other Hyvido hybrids on the AHDB Recommended List –Bazooka, Belfry and Volume – Mrs Brooke notes.

“With hybrid barley now accounting for about a quarter of the UK winter barley area it is good to be able to expand growers’ Hyvido hybrid barley options even further.

“A key feature of Hyvido Sunningdale is that, in the North, it is even higher yielding than Bazooka, which itself has set the bar for winter barley yields. It is also even slightly earlier maturing than Bazooka, which will also be useful for the North. That said, it is on a par with Bazooka for yield generally, so it’s not just a Northern option,” she points out.

New spring barley

Finally, a new spring malting barley variety, Dioptric, adds to the expanding number of spring barley varieties from Syngenta targeted at distilling on the AHDB Recommended List, alongside Laureate and Fairing.

A high yielding spring barley, Dioptric is under test for grain distilling, as opposed to malt distilling which Laureate is targeted at, says Mrs Brooke.