Neil Groom, Technical Director for Grainseed, warns growers that the new HGCA policy of only testing winter oilseed rape varieties for 5 years means that the most stable varieties will no longer be on the HGCA Harvest Results this season.

"Once HGCA have 5 years of data they feel that they no longer need to test the variety since they have a robust database and describe each variety well on the Recommended List. This is fair enough, but many growers use the HGCA Harvest Results on which to base their decisions on varieties to grow at harvest."

"Farmers and agronomists know the variety Es Astrid well. Astrid was listed in 2005 and is still a very popular and widely grown low biomass conventional variety. It still performs consistently well, with a yield of 102%, a Phoma stem canker resistance of 7, stem stiffness of 8, and resistance to lodging of 8 – a really good all-round package. But, because it was not sown in HGCA trials this year, farmers won’t be able to see how it stacks up against the newer Recommended varieties or the candidates in the Harvest Results. Nor will farmers be able to see how consistently it performs over very different seasons."

Last year Es Astrid was the highest yielding conventional variety in the Recommended List trial in Broughton in Hampshire, and second highest yielding at Framlingham in Suffolk and Wardington in Oxfordshire, so it still performs really well in trials as well as on farm.

The first NIAB/TAG trial results for oilseed rape grown at Fulbourn Cambridge harvested on 15July confirms that Es Astrid is still the top yielding variety alongside ES Cubic and hybrid PR46W14 at 106% of controls (4.73t/ha). These results confirm grower’s experience this season as combines roll and it becomes clear that Astrid remains one of the top performers on farm.

This dilemma will also apply to other rape varieties such as Lioness, Expert and NKBravour and potentially other crops including wheat and barley. "Its going to be harder to compare varieties this year, but remember what’s been your benchmark for the last few years and keep with it he advises".