Two new winter oilseed rape hybrids from Pioneer have been added to the UK National List and the EU List, with seeds available for growers to plant this summer.

Pioneer, the seed brand of Corteva Agriscience, has added PT312 and PT315 to its range, both of which have been extensively tested across a wide variety of sites in the UK and Europe.

PT312 is the second oilseed rape variety with the Protector Sclerotinia trait, which was first seen in PT303 in 2021. In UK National List trials in 2022, it returned a very high gross output yield of 103%, and an impressive oil content of 47.6%.

"This top-level yield performance comes with an outstanding trait combination of Protector Sclerotinia tolerance, turnip yellows virus resistance and pod shatter tolerance," says Andy Stainthorpe, Seeds and Inoculants Manager for Corteva.

"PT312 gave the highest oil content of any variety in 2021 and 2022 UK National List trials. This is likely to generate significant oil bonus payments from commercial crops."

The second variety to be launched in the UK and Ireland this year from Pioneer is PT315, which has achieved an even higher yield (106%) than PT312, while also delivering an oil content of 46.8%, also in UK National List trials.

"The yield potential for growers is clear, and PT315 comes with a unique agronomic package including pod shatter resistance, turnip yellows virus resistance and the highest autumn vigour score of any hybrid in the Pioneer range," Andy said.

In 2022/23, ADAS trials of PT312 and PT315 demonstrated significantly higher ground cover than competitor varieties. PT312 and PT315 achieved 65% and 76.7% respectively, whereas the control varieties delivered results ranging from 8.3% to 36.7%.

Both also scored highly for crop vigour, with PT312 achieving a score of 6.7 and PT315 6.8, while three control varieties only scored between 1.3 and 2.7.

In UK official trials PT312 scored five for light leaf spot, seven for stem canker, nine for lodging and eight for stem stiffness.

PT315 achieved a very high rating of 6.9 for early autumn vigour, a score of six for light leaf spot, six for stem canker, nine for lodging and eight for stem stiffness. It also has specific resistance to the RImE phoma strain along with broad genetic resistance to phoma.

Andy said: "We think growers in the UK and Ireland will really benefit from having these additional varieties to choose from when making their variety selections for planting in the coming weeks.

"They are the latest from our pipeline of hybrids to deliver what the grower wants; exemplary yields with a complete package of traits to help them grow a successful crop in a maritime climate.

"With PT312 in particular, Pioneer is demonstrating its commitment to breed varieties with important traits such as sclerotinia tolerance, which offers in-built protection against what can be a devastating stem disease."