KWS continues to bring new varieties to market with the addition of two new high-yielding varieties to the 2018-19 AHDB Recommended List.
KWS Jackal is a consistently high-yielding Group 4 soft wheat with recommendation for the north. It will join the RL as the highest yielding soft feed in the UK.
With KWS Santiago in its parentage, KWS Jackal has good specific weight and very stiff straw. Its excellent yield in the North, combined with its stiff straw and medium maturity support its distilling potential where it is the highest-yielding variety.
“It yields well across a range of situations and soil types, including heavy and light land, as both a first and second cereal. With good yellow rust and orange wheat blossom midge resistance, it holds strong appeal to those in the east of England,” says Mark Dodds, KWS wheat breeder.
High-yielding 6-row barley
Also added to the 2018-19 RL with UK-wide suitability is KWS Astaire, a high-yielding 6-row winter barley with the best lodging resistance on the list.
A UK yield of 108%, it is the highest yielding conventionally bred winter barley on the RL and just 1% behind the leading hybrid.
KWS Astaire has excellent all-round disease resistance, including most notably to the wet weather diseases, Rhynchosporium (score of 7) and net blotch (6). Across all diseases, it beats the hybrids and is only bettered by its parent, KWS Meridian. Its strong disease resistance is evident in its excellent untreated yield of 93% (of treated controls).
“Like Meridian, KWS Astaire is a continental cross however, it is not overtly early to start growing in the spring like some continental varieties. It has good stem strength, low lodging and is early to mature. It also has the lowest screenings of any variety on the RL due in part to its high thousand grain weight,” says David Harrap, KWS barley breeder.
