With a focus on agronomic functionality and low-input production, Darling and Dazzler are DSV’s first ever ‘triple-layered’ oilseed rape varieties to join the RL, says the company’s Sarah Hawthorne.
“Joining the 2020/21 AHDB Recommended List for the East/West region, the varieties combine high gross outputs with Turnip Yellow Virus (TuYV), RLM7+ phoma stem canker and pod shatter resistances to deliver simple maintenance and low growing costs.
“Both Darling and Dazzler have been developed in response to the demands faced by growers in particular the need for lower cost management and to address the impact of reduced agrochemical availability in the future.
“They are designed to deliver sustained early vigour in the field to grow through pest and disease attacked whilst exhibiting a range of features that support them from canopy development through to harvest.”
Both varieties score 8 for phoma stem canker and 6 for light leaf spot resistances with one of the main features shown in AHDB trials being their consistency of yield production, she says.
“Darling has a gross output 103% and Dazzler 104% with gross outputs consistently at or over 100% of control over the last three very different growing years.
“This underlines their production stability and resilience and this is of real significance in the challenging and more variable climatic conditions widely predicted in the years ahead.”
Oil content is also impressive at 46.0% for Darling and 46.2% for Dazzler with the varieties’ TuYV resistance being a key feature for future protection of margins, she adds.
“TuYV can reduce yields by up to 20% and it’s difficult to detect until the damage is done.
“Tests carried out by The University of Warwick and NIAB suggest over 90% of the UK crop carried TuYV virus in 2019 with ADAS Rothamsted reporting up to 80% of the aphid vector Myzus persicae population now carrying the virus.
“With reducing ability of available chemistry to control these populations effectively, TuYV resistance is the only way to protect crops against this increasingly damaging virus.”
Other key features allied to yield and disease protection include 8s for lodging resistance with Darling at 8 and Dazzler at 9 for standing power, she points out.
“All in all, these are robust, real world varieties that are based on some of the latest genetics with a genuine focus on addressing the challenges oilseed rape growers now face.
“With a reducing arsenal of agrochemical controls at growers’ disposal, genetics will have to address many of the issues that sprayers used to address and this is exactly what Darling and Dazzler have been bred to do.”
