First UK Farm Trialling Confirms New Clubroot Variety Strength

New clubroot resistant hybrid, DK Pledge is echoing its performance in European trials by substantially outyielding the highest output clubroot variety on the 2023/24 Recommended List in its first UK farm trialling.

The field-scale strip trial on a Shropshire farm with particular clubroot concerns shows the latest specialist hybrid from the Dekalb programme delivering an average 3.96t/ha against the RL clubroot leader’s 3.74t/ha alongside it – an advantage of over 5%.

The fact that the variety also outperformed an established Recommended ‘00’ hybrid and the average of all six current mainstream hybrids included in the trial managed under the farm’s standard practice underlines the opportunity it provides for UK growers with any clubroot worries, believes Bayer trials manager, Richard Williams.

“What really stood out between the two clubroot varieties here was the difference in the amount of seed shed and already growing under the canopy ahead of combining,” he notes. “DK Pledge is the only clubroot resistant variety to carry Dekalb pod shatter resistance, and its value really showed-up even in the absence of any particularly damaging summer storms.

“As well as this and no yield-lag on mainstream OSR varieties, the new hybrid also has very strong foliar disease resistance, great standing power and is rapid to develop in the autumn as well as vigorous in its establishment, Mr Williams adds. “Its combination of performance and an agronomic package up there with the best of mainstream hybrids really does move genetics on for anyone in the UK worried about clubroot. We are very excited to see how the variety measures up in our replicated small plot trials across the country as well as in our farm strip trialling.”