Two new varieties have made it on to the Department of Agriculture’s recommended list of spring beans for 2022.

Caprice and Victus are now provisionally recommended, following four years of trials, and join Fanfare and Lynx on the list.

Lynx remains the top variety on relative yield with a rating of 104, compared with Caprice's and Victus’s ratings of 100 and Fanfare’s relative yield rating of 99.

Victus is a significantly shorter variety than the other three, with a height of 126cm compared with 134cm to 136cm in the other varieties.

An important trait in beans is earliness of maturity. Caprice has a rating of 7, while the remaining three varieties score a 6.

Both new varieties have a resistance rating of 7 for chocolate spot, compared with a rating of 6 in Fanfare and Lynx. Victus falls slightly behind on downy mildew with a rating of 6, while Fanfare and Caprice score the best for rust.

More attractive for animal feed

The varieties range in crude protein ratings from 99 to 102, while new variety Victus claims to be low in anti-nutritional compounds vicine and covicine. This can make it more attractive for inclusion in compound feeds.

Seed availability

Looking at seed availability for the season ahead, Lynx takes up the majority of the seed at approximately 58%. Fanfare follows with 15% of the seed availability, while Victus is at 14% and Caprice is at 13%.