Varieties - are they performing?

[SilliamWhale]

Some of the varieties were encouraged to consider as "outclassed" have performed well this year eg Cassia. Others have been pretty poor. It hasn't been a great year weatherwise but it hasn't been that bad.

Are the new ones being overmarketed and the older ones being undersold or promoted as outdated too quickly. I realise trials show improvements but it doesn't translate to field scale so seamlessly - is that a fault of us as farmers or is it a flaw in the testing process ie are the types of trials at the moment doing enough?

I'm not doing a seed variety knocking thread, but I'm asking do you feel you get back what you want from variety development? I suppose one strong argument is greater fungal resistance - does it stand scrutiny in the field though?

 

[DeeGee]

Spoke to someone in the grain trade today (North West Midlands) and he said that winter barley yields generally are very disappointing this year. Cassia though is yielding quite well and better than some of the so called higher yielding varieties.