The 2026 winter cereal recommended lists were published this week and provide an interesting insight into the varieties that will be available for this season. Shay Phelan tells us more.

Winter Oats

The list is the same as last year, with Husky, Enya and Isabel the three recommended varieties. All have pretty similar disease characteristics although Husky is a little bit more susceptible to crown rust that the other two, while the yield of Isabel is 5% behind the other two. Isabel, however has better straw characteristics even thought it is the tallest with Enya being the shortest.

Winter barley

There are three new fully recommended varieties Integral, Orcade and SY Canyon but there are no provisionally recommended varieties. Cassia is the oldest variety on the list, having first been listed in 2011, but will be only 1% of the seed this year. On the list its yield is 94% but the one year data for 2025 is closer to 90% it really only is being grown for the toasting market as it has the best quality grain on the list. Orcade and KWS Tardis will account for over 50% of the seed available while KWS Joyau will be about 12% and Integral 10%.

There are 4 BYDV tolerant varieties on the list Orcade, Joyau, Molly and Integral, of these Joyau and Integral would be considered early maturing varieties and in spring growth are often a week to ten days earlier that the other varieties. Joyau has the best straw characteristics while Molly has the weakest.

Belfry and SY Canyon are the two 6 row hybrid varieties with Canyon having the highest yield of 106 with Canyon having a very good hectolitre weight of 68.4 for a 6 row variety.

From a disease score perspective Cassia is the poorest on rynchosporium with Belfry being the best, Canyon and Molly are good on mildew and they are all pretty similar on net blotch.

Winter wheat

There has been a lot of interest in the newer varieties this year as some of them have shown relatively good septoria scores in trials. However, the big story from 2025 was the amount of yellow rust that showed up in crops this year.

There are 11 varieties on the list this year 4 that are fully recommended, Fitzroy, Graham, KWS Dawsun and Spearhead while 7 varieties are provisionally recommended, Champion, Kubik, KWS Equipe, KWS Scope, LG Rebillion, NOS Bullseye and RGT Hexton. Graham, Champion and Fitzroy will account for approximately 70% of the seed available.

Champion and Kubik score 107 for yield while Dawsum is the lowest at 99, however Champion only scores a 5 for resistance to lodging alongside both Equipe and Spearhead whereas Bullseye is the highest at 8. Equipe and Rebellion are the earliest ripening varieties while Fitzroy followed by Hexton are the slowest, the two earliest at a score of 8 could be up to 10 days earlier than the Fitzroy at a score of 3 if you allow approximately 2 days for every point.

From a disease point of view Fitzroy and Bullseye have the highest score of 7 for Septoria while Dawsum has a 4. In the case of yellow rust only Fitzroy 7, Rebellion 7 and Hexton 6 can be considered to have good resistance while all the other varieties score a 4 or a 5 for resistance to yellow rust although Graham does have relatively good juvenile resistance. This means that practically all the crops will have to be carefully watched at leaf 4 fungicide timing to see if a fungicide is needed.

The full recommended 2026 list is available here

Oilseed Rape

Volunteer cereals are now at a stage where they need to be controlled in most crops options include Falcon/Claw, Fusilade Max, Pilot Ultra, Stratos Ultra or Centurion Max. The rate of each product will depend on whether or not other weeds such as sterile brome have to be controlled as well. Growers should alternate products to avoid the development of resistance in certain grass weeds.

Volunteer cereals growing in an oilseed rape crop

Slugs have also started to graze crops so keep an eye out for any damage, where damage is observed apply a full rate of any of the approved slug pellets.