NIAB recommended lists of cereal varieties: an aid to orderly marketing in the United Kingdom

The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NLAB) has published recommended lists of cereal varieties for over fifty years, to focus the attenfion of growers, seedsmen and end-users on the relatively few varieties with the best performance in independent trials. This paper presents a review of wheat, barley and oat Recommended Lists (RL), for the 38 years 1955 to 1992, which examines the resulting amount of variety choice, the length of time varieties remain on the Lists, and the impact of the recommendations on seed demand and supply. UK National Lists (NL) of varieties accepted for marketing contain over 50 varieties for winter wheat, over 60 for spring barley, and about 35 varieties for winter barley. In contrast, the annually updated Recommended Lists for each of these three major UK crops concentrate commercial interest on the 12-15 proven best varieties. Data presented show that seed supply and demand are geared to RL decisions, about 90% of the UK certified seed tonnage is of recommended varieties of wheat, barley and oafs, seed supplies being built up to substantial levels within 3-4 years of a variety being recommended. Up to 40% of the varieties entered for NL trials may be acceptable for marketing but fewer than 1 in 10 sustains sufficiently good performance over five years of trials to achieve full recommendation. New varieties enter trials each year, setting higher standards for recommendation. On average, the better varieties stay on the RL for eight years, usually two years of provisional, four years of full recommendation and two years in the 'becoming outclassed' category. A few, very remarkable, varieties with particular value for crop production or for processing have remained recommended for 15 to 25 years. The Recommended List system continues to fulfil its original aims of achieving fast and effective transfer of improved cereal varieties into UK agriculture, and assisting the orderly production and marketing of seed anti crops.