THE HIGHEST yielding spring barley on the Recommended List, RGT Planet, now has full approval for brewing on the latest Institute of Brewing and Distilling list.

It successfully came through macro malting and brewing tests carried out by the IBD and RAGT Seeds managing director, Simon Howell, said: “The variety’s combination of field and brewing performance has set new levels throughout the testing process.

“With the seed industry fully behind the variety, it has the potential to take more than 20% market share in next year’s commercial spring barley crops,” he added.

Its robust agronomic profile is also a selling point, pointed out Dr Cathy Hooper, RAGT’s technical manager. “It is the highest yielding spring barley on the Recommended List and has a solid disease resistance package, including the best combination of mildew (9) and ramularia (8) scores.

“The variety is also one of the earliest maturing on the list at -1, has good brackling and lodging resistance and is relatively short. Overall, it’s a very farmer-friendly variety.”

Planet also has the potential to be a 'world' variety – in 2015 it was in official trials in 18 countries across Europe and was the top yielding variety in 14 and has also performed well in countries like Argentina, Australia and India.