Recommended and Sustainable Wheat and Barley Varieties for 2020/21

Merit, Elsoms’ latest Group 3 Biscuit Wheat and Bolton, an exceptionally high yielding, 2-row feed Barley are the latest additions to the AHDB Recommended List from Elsoms’ breeding programmes. The promotion of these varieties to the AHDB Recommended List demonstrates Elsoms’ continued success as an influential breeder with a focus on high performance and low-risk varieties.

Merit and Astound – Winter Wheat

Merit’s excellent performance in untreated trials has impressed during a very challenging 2020 growing season. This low-risk variety performs well in later drilling situations, giving farmers more flexibility in ever-more challenging winters.

“The consistently high performance of Merit over the last few years of trials solidifies its place on the AHDB Recommended List. This clearly shows that the Elsoms Wheat breeding programme continues to deliver incredible varieties.” Says Paul Taylor, Head of Agriculture at Elsoms. “With more promising varieties in the pipeline, including Astound and Mayflower, we’re looking forward to offering UK farmers even more low risk and high performing wheat varieties in the future.”

With more emphasis on sustainability Elsoms’ Group 4 variety, Astound, has found its place as a specialist variety for the mixed farmer.  With outstanding untreated yield, exceptional straw strength and quick spring development, Astound proves itself to be the best in the West when it comes to a low-risk, low maintenance variety. 

Bolton – Winter Barley

With a yield that is on par with most hybrid barleys, Bolton has excelled itself in the East. A highly consistent variety boasting resistance to all foliar diseases. This two-row Barley is the third recommended variety from Elsoms Ackermann Barley (EAB). Established in 2018 the EAB breeding programme secured the foundation for Elsoms to develop high-quality Barley variety in the UK with greater genetic diversity.   

“Bolton is an impressive 2-row winter feed barley that yields on comparison with most 6-row hybrids” states George Goodwin, Combinable Crop Manager at Elsoms. “In untreated plots, we’ve seen that it stands exceptionally well. We’ve certainly seen yields consistent with AHDB in our trials for treated and untreated”.

For more information on these varieties, click here for Merit or Astound and here for Bolton