Bred by AFBI in Northern Ireland, Banbridge is an intermediate tetraploid with excellent spring and summer growth and excellent silage yield. The variety tops the PPI for 2026 with an impressive score of €268/ha, a whopping €55/ha higher than nearest rival Galgorm, which topped the list in 2025.

The economic values in the PPI have been updated for 2026 and these updates are explained on pages 46&47. One of the biggest changes is that the star ratings for grazing utilisation have been replaced with an economic value meaning this now directly feeds into a variety’s PPI.

Whereas previously, many farmers sought to only use four and five star varieties for grazing utilisation on fields destined for intensive grazing, they will now have to check out the economic value. In simple terms, varieties with a positive figure for grazing utilisation are deemed good.

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Astonenergy was always deemed a good performer in grazing utilisation and it has a value of €16/ha. New variety Banbridge also scores well in this parameter with a score of €15/ha, while the best performing variety is Barwave with a value of €24. In last years’ PPI, both Barwave and Astonenergy had five stars for utilisation.

For me, the utilisation score is a bit like choosing bulls on the EBI active bull list. There are some bulls, like varieties that might tick nine out of 10 boxes but the box it doesn’t tick rules it out.

If a variety is to be used as part of a reseed on a paddock in the milking platform then utilisation score is really important.

It’s the best indication we have that cows will like the variety because the score is collated based on cleanout, or post grazing residuals.

In the Moorepark trials, cows have free access to graze whatever variety they like and after a set amount of time the researchers check which varieties were grazed out the best.

Two other varieties join the recommended lists for the first time in 2026. These are Silago and Aberdon.

Silago, a late diploid has a respectable PPI at €140/ha and has good spring and summer growth and, as the name suggests, is a good silage variety with a PPI for silage of €21/ha.

It doesn’t score as well under the grazing utilisation trait with a value of €-9/ha, but as it is geared more towards silage, the grazing utilisation score is probably not as important.

Another late diploid joining the list for the first time in 2026 is Aberdon.

This variety has very high summer and autumn growth and scores very high for quality, in fact it is the highest variety on the list for quality at €78/ha.

Table 1 shows the PPI for 2026. The data is taken from the Recommended Lists for Grass and White Clover 2026 as published by the Department of Agriculture but only includes the PPI element of the recommended lists table.

The non-PPI element is the Department’s own results from the evaluation trials. This is the data that the PPI is based on and includes an index for spring, summer and autumn growth, silage yield, etc.

The PPI uses this data to formulate an economic value for each trait and it combines it with the data from the on-farm evaluation and from the grazing utilisation trials in Moorepark to add to the Department data on a variety.

There are a couple of important points. Firstly, each of the varieties on the recommended list or with a PPI are approved for use in Ireland as they have been tested and qualified under Irish conditions. Not all varieties available on the market are approved so farmers need to be aware of that.

Enrolled

Some varieties get enrolled in the recommended lists trials and fail to make it on to the final recommended list for various reasons, usually based on poor performance in one or more important traits.

Essentially, both the Department of Agriculture and Teagasc are carrying out an important service to farmers by developing the recommended list and PPI. It was previously described to me that the PPI is like the senior division in a sporting group.

Not all teams can make it into the senior division and all teams that are in the senior division are good, but some are better than others. Teams outside of that top division may claim to be good, but in reality, they are not as good as they think otherwise, they would be in that top division.

When it comes to choosing varieties as part of a seed mixture, make sure varieties complement each other. This means that if one variety is very good for spring growth, but not as good for autumn growth then the other variety should be good for autumn growth.

For me, utilisation is non-negotiable and unless the variety is being used for silage fields, then I would like to see it rank highly for grazing utilisation. Finally, don’t use too many varieties in a mix; one, two or three varieties is fine.