Due to our strong relationships with UK and European plant breeders, we have access to leading established barley varieties but also new variety releases which can be issued on semi-exclusive, or even exclusive arrangements.
Cope Seeds picks and trials the best varieties and brings them to market, offering a carefully selected range of winter, spring and naked oats, with buy-back contracts available for particular varieties.
Forging robust markets for grain is key to our mission and we supply an increasing number of growing end-markets. Having built up strong relationships with leading end-users, we have increased our customer base and the quantity of grain sold year on year.
Jump to Barley varieties
Spring Barley
Evelina
Conventional
Organic
This versatile and low input variety of spring barley offers high untreated and treated grain yields, as well as excellent, high yielding straw for bedding or forage.
Laureate
Conventional
Organic
Laureate spring barley is another quality malting type suitable for both brewing and distilling. It’s a shorter, later-maturing variety and the highest yielding variety suitable for both market, with untreated yields of 97% and good resistance scores to all the major diseases.
LG Diablo
Conventional
LG Diablo spring barley is the most exciting spring barley to hit the Recommended List since Laureate and sits towards at the top of the table for yield. LG Diablo also sits with the highest untreated yield of any variety at 97%. LG Diablo has a medium straw and good all round disease package, reflecting its high untreated yields. It has full approval for malt distilling and is a good option for an organic grower.
RGT Planet
Conventional
NEW RGT Planet Spring Barley sits on the AHDB Recommended List as one of the highest yielding spring barleys with approval for brewing. A fairly short variety with good resistance to brackling and lodging. RGT Planet has exceptional resistance to Mildew and Ramularia but does not show such good resistance to yellow or brown rust. A variety which should be considered as a feed as well as malting variety due to its high yields.
Skyway
Conventional
Organic
Skyway- is one of the highest yielding varieties on the recommended list. It has provisional MBC approval. It has a good disease package, which includes a 9 for Mildew. It is medium in high, brackling resistance and medium to early maturity
Westminster
Conventional
Organic
A long-standing favourite in the organic sector with long, stiff straw and excellent all-round disease resistance, combined with very high specific weight. Accepted by some end users as a malting barley, and a good excellent choice as a feed barley also. Malting Buy Backs available.
Winter Barley
Bazooka
Conventional
Fully recommended, Bazooka is an established and popular hybrid barley with high yields, replacing its sister variety Volume.
It’s disease profile is better than Volume, especially it’s yellow rust (9) and Rhynchosporium (6) resistance.
California
Conventional
California is well suited to the main feed barley growing areas of the UK having good agronomic characters and disease resistance combined with very good grain quality. California has demonstrated its high yield potential in six years of National and Recommended List trials, performing especially well in the West of the UK where the majority of feed barley is grown. California is similar in height to the majority of feed winter barleys with very good lodging resistance, when treated with a PGR. Ripening is similar to KWS Glacier.
Craft
Conventional
Craft winter barley is a high yielding winter barley with full malting approval. Craft is of moderate height with a strong 8 for lodging. A variety with good all round disease resistance scores and performs particularly well on light land.
Electrum
Conventional
A real step forward, Electrum winter barley was added to the AHDB Recommended List with provisional approval for malting. Superb grain quality with low screenings and high specific weight. Performs better on heavier soils when compared to Craft. Extremely early to mature.
Jordan
Conventional
Jordan is another new two row feed barley that is high yielding in both untreated and treated situations that boasts a good specific weight. Jordan also possesses an excellent disease resistance package scoring an 8 for brown rust and a 7 for rhynchosporium.
Kingsbarn
Conventional
Kingsbarn is the new all-rounder which boasts good yield potential with improved specific weight 69.8 kg/hl. Kingsbarn is high yielding with superb grain quality. It performs best in the east and the west, as it offers good resistance to wet weather diseases and has high straw yields. Kingsbarn’s spring vigour boosts its ability to control blackgrass and the high yields make it the perfect alternative to 2nd wheat in the east.
KWS Cassia
Conventional
Listed since 2010, KWS Cassia is still a popular 2 row feed accounting for nearly a 3rd of the winter barley market. Its excellent specific weights and grain quality combined with consistent yields are the main reasons for its continued support.
KWS Hawking
Conventional
KWS Hawking is a new high yielding two row feed variety with a good specific weight and a reasonable disease resistance package. Date suggest it prefers heavier soils and has an excellent resistance to lodging given that it grows to a height of 90cm.
KWS Orwell
Conventional
The 2 row feed market is pretty packed with little to differentiate the varieties. However KWS Orwell is still the 2nd most popular of the varieties alongside KWS Tower. KWS Orwell has a strong disease package but consideration to mildew must be given. KWS Orwell is consistent across regions and has good resistance to lodging.
Surge
Conventional
Organic
Surge is a high yielding 2-row variety. Surge offers the strongest disease profile and is particularly strong on Mildew and Rhynchosporium resistant. Surges’ strong disease resistance profile is demonstrated by its very high untreated yield and is a variety commonly used by organic growers because of this. Surge has bold grain, a high specific weight and good straw characteristics.
Valerie
Conventional
Valerie is a high yielding two-row feed barley that performs well in both treated and untreated trials. This can be put down to the combination of robust disease (9 for brown rust) and lodging resistance (including BaYMV). Valerie also has superb grain quality with a specific weight of 70.2 making it a good choice for all regions.