Three new conventional oilseed rape varieties from Syngenta will be available to growers this autumn in varying quantities of seed.

Gloria is the furthest through the Recommended List process, as one of this year’s candidate varieties for the northern region. It had the fourth highest gross output of the RL candidates for the north behind Palace, Syngenta’s Nigel Padbury said.

“It’s short and stiff – similar to mid-range general purpose varieties.”

The one slight concern is a light leaf spot rating of five. “But it has yielded 117% of the controls even with that,” Mr Padbury pointed out.

The other two varieties are in National List trials, but can be sold commercially because they have been accepted on to the EU Common Catalogue. NK Grandia has a gross output 8% higher than Castille in NL trials last year, driven by its high oil content of 46.4%.

That was a similar yield advantage as DK Cabernet has over Castille in RL trials, Mr Padbury pointed out, which he hoped would mean the variety could be competitive with the current gross output leading variety. Direct comparisons between the two weren’t possible as DK Cabernet wasn’t a control variety in NL trials.

NK Grandia was both shorter and earlier maturing than DK Cabernet, he said. “It will be available through Openfield this autumn.”

Very small amounts of Tactic would also be available commercially this autumn. Another conventional variety, it was one of only three in NL trials that beat Castille by over 10% in gross output, again partly driven by a very high oil content of 46.9%. It, too, was a medium to short variety with a stiff stem, Mr Padbury said.