The first AHDB Recommended Lists winter wheat trials results for this year’s harvest are now in.

Reports from two trials – a first wheat from Lincolnshire and a second wheat from Suffolk – indicate an average yield of 8.9t/ha for 2015, a figure which is expected to change significantly as more trials are harvested.

A range of quality varieties have performed well, with yields from across the nabim Groups comparing favourably to the control.

The control varieties, used to calculate a yield of 100%, are JB Diego, Gallant, Invicta, KWS Santiago and Crusoe.

Bread-making nabim Group 1s Skyfall, KWS Trinity and Crusoe came in at 103%, 102% and 101% of the control yield respectively, while new nabim Group 2 variety KWS Lili stands at 102%.

Of the new biscuit-making wheats, nabim Group 3 variety Britannia – which may also be suitable for quality export – yielded at 105% and RGT Conversion at 103%. The Group 4 hard feed varieties KWS Kielder, Relay and KWS Santiago have performed well at both sites with a respective yield of 111%, 108% and 106% of the control varieties.

Soft Group 4 feed varieties performing well at the two sites include Leeds (110%) and Horatio (105%).

AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds’ Dr Simon Oxley said: “It’s early days to make too many assumptions regarding variety performance in 2015. Although the current 2015 average yield of 8.9t/ha looks scant compared to the five-year average of 9.96 t/ha, we fully expect this will change markedly as more data becomes available.

“The picture being painted by these initial results is that growers can choose to grow for quality end-markets without sacrificing yield, an advantage that could prove valuable in this era of low prices.”

North OSR results show strong yields

Recommended List oilseed rape trials results for Fife and the Borders show strong performance against the four-year average.

The 2015 gross output values of the control varieties from the two trials are 6.28 t/ha for Fife and 5.47 t/ha for the Borders site. Anastasia (109%) and newly recommended variety Campus (108%) have performed well at both the sites this year. Varieties with the highest gross outputs are currently SY Harnas (111%)  Anastasia (110%)  Campus (110%)  V316OL (110%) and Incentive (108%), based on the four-year average, which includes the 2015 figures.

New clubroot resistant variety Mentor has achieved a yield of 105% in the North for 2015 and 103% in the four-year average. Amalie, a specialist variety with Turnip Yellows Virus (TuYV) resistance, currently has a gross output of 99% in 2015 and 97% in the four-year average.

More trials are expected to be harvested this week. More info is available from AHDB here.