BaYMV1 and BaYMV2 resistance combined with very high yields and excellent quality.

Darcie is new to the AHDB RL 2026/27. It is a very high yielding feed barley with a high specific weight, low screening losses and resistance to both BaYMV1 and 2.

Darcie performs well in all regions, but particularly in the East and North and combines this with very stiff straw, low brackling and very good resistance to the major diseases.

It is one of only two winter barley varieties on the list to offer dual soil-borne BaYMV 1 and 2 protection, the other being its stablemate Kitty.   This protection is important at a time when strain 2 prevalence is increasing, particularly in the East and there is no chemical option.

The grain quality of Darcie is excellent with a high specific weight and low screenings.

BaYMV is a soil borne virus which infects winter barley, disseminated through contaminated soil. Chemical control is not possible, therefore it is important to grow resistant cultivars in contaminated fields. The gene rym4 is efficient and is widely deployed in European winter barley cultivars and most varieties on the RL. This gives resistance to BaYMV1.



A second strain of the virus is overcoming the rym4 resistance in France and Germany and now the UK.

Varieties with the rym5 gene are resistant to this strain.