Harvest 2023: The 5 top-yielding spring barley varieties map

Throughout harvest 2023, we are updating our handy map with the latest data from 2023’s AHDB spring barley Recommended List harvest results.

Use the map below to find the five highest-yielding spring barley varieties at your nearest trials site.

See also: Harvest 2023: The 5 top-yielding winter barley varieties map

Spring barley summary

Harvest results have been reported from seven AHDB Recommended Lists fungicide-treated spring barley trials sites: Kent, Norfolk (2), Cambridgeshire, Angus, Perth and Kinross and Highland.

Despite the dry weather through May and June, followed by a dull July, spring barley trials performed surprisingly well in 2023.

As with commercial crops, yields have been quite variable, but most RL trials have been good enough to take through to harvest.

The average treated yield of control varieties is 8.15 t/ha, which is just above the five-year average of 7.96 t/ha. Low yields were recorded in the Norfolk trials, with the highest yield so far in the Cambridgeshire trial.

With 14 fungicide-treated trials to report results, these initial yields should be treated with caution. As more information becomes available, a clearer pattern of variety performance in 2023 will develop.

Variety summary

For the malting varieties, the initial results show the newly recommended variety Signet as highest yielding (104%), with Firefoxx next highest on 102%, followed by a clutch of varieties on 101% (Skyway, Laureate, newly recommended Diviner and Curtis).

Florence (102%) was under test for brewing, but has been removed from the list of varieties under test for brewing by the MBC.

Yield data for the variety Tennyson, provisionally approved for brewing and malt distilling, is not included in harvest results for 2023.

Seed used for trials was infected with high levels of seed-borne net blotch, leading to high levels of foliar disease in the field and significantly reduced yields.

Seed stocks used for multiplication and available commercially were not affected by this issue. 

The only recommended feed variety in trial this year is the newly recommended variety Hurler, with a yield of 102%.