Catana OSR Joins HGCA Recommended List
10/12/07

Exceptional new winter oilseed rape, Catana was added to the HGCA Recommended List this week to provide growers across the country with a novel balance of variety characteristics delivering highly consistent performance as well as gross outputs at the highest level.

Catana’s unusual combination of high seed yield with very high oil content makes it the highest UK gross output conventional variety on the list, with a 2% improvement on established RL leaders, Castille and Excalibur from the same market-leading DEKALB breeding programme.

What is more, a Northern region gross output more than 10% above the previous best varieties at no less than 119 combined with the highest level of light leaf spot resistance of any variety are certain to give Catana particular appeal for more northerly growers.

“Catana may knock the spots off other varieties in the north, but it certainly isn’t just a northern variety,” points out DEKALB breeder, Matthew Clarke. “With the growing threat posed by light leaf spot in many parts of southern England, it offers particularly valuable UK-wide benefits. This is quite apparent from RL trial gross outputs in the East and West region similar to Castille, Excalibur and Excel, and comfortably above all other existing Recommended varieties.

“The real breakthrough we’ve achieved in Catana is to combine an oil content of over 45% with a notably high seed yield. Up to now very high oil contents have been at the expense of seed yields, limiting gross output potential. It’s very exciting that we’ve been able to stack these two vital output characteristics. And in a variety displaying such great agronomic strength as well.

“This should do much to increase the consistency as well as the level of winter OSR performance in commercial practice.”

Many growers will appreciate the ability Catana has shown to compensate for lower pod and seed numbers with very much higher 1000 seed weights under stressful growing conditions. They are also likely to value the sort of autumn vigour normally associated with hybrids without any early stem extension problems, together with high levels of winter hardiness.

Add to these characteristics early enough flowering and maturity to avoid the worst effects of both pollen beetle and drought and you have a recipe for a degree of commercial consistency that has been sadly lacking in so many modern OSR varieties to date.

“On paper, Catana’s one possible weakness looks like stem canker,” Matthew Clarke observes. “After all, a resistance rating of 4.4 is nothing to write home about, even alongside a 7.5 for light leaf spot. But here again the variety has an ace up its sleeve. Very good performance in untreated southern RL trials heavily influenced by stem canker suggests a far higher ability to tolerate the disease in the field than its simple resistance rating implies.

“This and the variety’s excellent overall yield and gross output performance across official East and West region fungicide-treated trials leaves us in no doubt it will deliver handsomely under commercial conditions.

“At the same convenient plant height as Excalibur and with good stem stiffness and lodging resistance, Catana also ticks all the boxes as far as ease of management and harvestability are concerned,” he adds. “What’s more, its flowering and maturity look like providing an excellent workload balance with earlier varieties like Excalibur and Castille.”

Exciting New Milling Wheat Joins HGCA Recommended List
Catana Oilseed Rape Launched at Cereals 2007
Good for Corn Worrying for Horn - Fisher German