RGT Planet looks set to become Europe’s biggest spring barley variety according to its breeder, RAGT Seeds. In addition to being the highest yielding variety on the UK Recommended List (RL), it achieves the same accolade in Germany, Denmark and France. In Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic, RGT Planet is also the highest yielding candidate in the country equivalent of the RL’s NL1 and NL2 trials.
Commenting on another high yield, high quality variety stemming from RAGT’s European breeding programme, Simon Howell, their UK Managing Director, said that RGT Planet joins Skyfall and their new bread-making candidate, RGT Illustrious, as further concrete proof that the programme is truly delivering.
“We are really excited to have another variety which is able to meet the needs of both the farmers and the end-users, RGT Planet is not only the UK’s highest yield spring malting barley it also tops all the feed barleys as well at 109% of control varieties,” he says.
RGT Planet has a UK untreated yield of 96%, with quality traits that appeal to the malting industry. The IBD is currently testing it for malting, the results of which are due May 16.
“On the continent, RGT Planet already has CBMO approvable in France and is in the final stage of the Berliner testing process in Germany; this combined with its listing on Heineken’s green list of preferred international varieties and its industrial testing with other major maltsters and brewers, positions it perfectly as a truly pan European variety,” he adds.
From harvest 2014 RGT Planet was in trial in 22 countries topping the trials in 18, for harvest 15 it has been entered in to a further 10 countries with its development now from Argentina to Slovakia and Ireland to India.
Chris Black RAGT’s International Product manager notes that “it’s unusual for a variety to perform under such a range of geographic and climatic conditions this gives us great confidence in the reliability of the variety going forward.”
Early ripening at +1 day makes it a good option for Scotland and the north of England, whilst its agronomics make it a robust option for the whole of the UK with a lodging +PGR score of 7, Rhynco at 5 and mildew scoring a [9]. In addition, it has a score of 8 for brackling and is satisfactory for brown and yellow rust, scoring 5 and [4] respectively.
