Barley agronomy in southern NSW

Rohan Brill¹, Karl Moore¹, Ian Menz² and Nick Moody²,

¹NSW DPI Wagga Wagga; ²NSW DPI Condobolin.

GRDC project code: DAN00173

Keywords: barley, sowing date, nitrogen, seeding rate.

Take home messages

• Barley performed relatively well in the frosty winter and dry spring of 2014.
• Early sowing of fast developing barley varieties reduced yield as a result of frost; however this effect was much less pronounced compared with wheat.
• The Hindmarsh plant type still remains the benchmark for grain yield in low-medium rainfall environments.
• Compass^A shows promise as a potential malt variety across all environments but is still undergoing malt accreditation.

Introduction

Barley has been a consistent performer in southern NSW over recent seasons. This has been due to its inherent capacity to tolerate dry springs and harsh frosts as well as excellent advancements in breeding. This paper outlines the agronomy of barley based on regional trial results in 2014; however there is still a need to pay close attention to paddock selection. Paddocks with acidic (< 5 pH_Ca) topsoil or subsoil should be avoided or limed. Also, paddocks with significant grass weed problems should be avoided as there are fewer control options compared to wheat.

This paper focuses on the agronomy of commercially available barley varieties, especially focussing on time of sowing, nitrogen rate and plant population decisions. 2014 agronomy trials were conducted as part of the Southern Barley Agronomy Project, with sites from Gerogery in the south, to Lockhart, Matong, Condobolin and Parkes in the north. National Variety Trials (NVT) were also conducted across the region.

Agronomy trials

Barley agronomy trials experienced a range of conditions in 2014 (Table 2). The frost events of early August had a substantial impact, especially on the time of sowing trials, as did the lack of late winter-early spring rain at some sites.

Table 1. Environmental and site conditions at barley agronomy sites in southern NSW in 2014.

Note: TOS = time of sowing; NBT = National Barley Trial

Sowing date trials

Barley planting dates have been moved earlier in recent seasons due partly to its ability to tolerate moderate frosts at flowering (greater tolerance than wheat) but also due to producers paying more attention to a crop, which in many areas in southern NSW has achieved the highest farm gross margins for three consecutive years.

Matong trial

An issue with the early sowing of barley is that there is not the diversity in varietal development available that there is in wheat, meaning that early sowing of barley has been done with varieties that are fast developing spring types such as Hindmarsh. From a mid-April sowing of 18 commercially available barley varieties at Matong in 2014 there was 17 days difference at anthesis between the fastest variety Hindmarsh and the slowest variety Navigator (Figure 1). This compares with a mid-April sowing of 36 commercially available wheat varieties at Wagga where there was 60 days difference at anthesis between the fastest variety Dart and the slowest variety Naparoo.

Figure 1. Anthesis date of 18 barley varieties sown at three sowing dates at Matong in 2014.

In the sowing date trial at Matong the date of anthesis accounted for a major proportion of the yield variability observed (Figure 2). The optimum time for anthesis was around mid-September in the sowing date trial at Matong in 2014. This is approximately two weeks earlier than the target anthesis window for wheat in the same region. This anthesis window could be achieved by sowing a fast developing variety (e.g. Hindmarsh) in mid-May or by sowing a slower developing variety (e.g. Urambie) in mid-late April. 

Figure 2. The effect of anthesis date on grain yield of eighteen barley varieties sown at three sowing dates at Matong in 2014.

The best performing varieties in this trial were generally the faster developing varieties sown 13 May (Table 3). Most of the faster varieties had significantly higher yields from the 13 May sowing date than the 23 April sowing date. The main exception to this was Compass which had similar yield from the first two sowing dates.

Table 2. Grain yield of eighteen barley varieties sown at three sowing dates at Matong in 2014.

Frost was partly responsible for the lower grain yield of some varieties from the 23 April sowing date compared with the 13 May sowing date (Table 2). Hindmarsh, Flinders and Fathom all had significantly lower yield from the early sowing and also had more frost damage from early sowing. These assessments were conducted at maturity and there could be the potential that there was also yield loss incurred from stem frost damage with the most severe of the frosted stems not making it through to maturity. Analysis of yield components (ears per m², grains per ear and grain weight) will be conducted at a later date.

Table 3. Frost induced sterility of five barley varieties sown at three sowing dates at Matong in 2014.

Condobolin

A larger set of varieties was sown in a lower rainfall environment at Condobolin with similar sowing dates as for the Matong site. At this site, when the varieties are broken up into the two different development groups ‘fast’ (e.g. Hindmarsh, La Trobe, Compass, Fathom, Schooner and Buloke) and ‘slow’ (e.g. Gairdner, Urambie, Navigator and Oxford) there was a clear advantage from planting the ‘fast’ varieties across all sowing dates (Figure 3). 

Figure 3. Grain yield of ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ developing varieties sown at three sowing dates at Condobolin in 2014.

The reduced yield of all varieties from the 24 April sowing date was likely due to the stem frost event that occurred on 3 August, with the temperature at Condobolin Airport recorded at -5.3°C. The dry conditions following this stem frost event favoured varieties that were faster to flower and fill grain such as Hindmarsh, La Trobe, Fathom and Skipper (Table 4). The faster barley varieties were also higher yielding than the two wheat varieties included in this trial, EGA Gregory and Dart.

Table 4. Grain yield of 21 barley varieties and two wheat varieties (denoted by ***) sown at three sowing dates at Condobolin in 2014.

Lockhart trial

The Lockhart trial was a mixed cereal trial with seven barley varieties and 21 wheat varieties. Similar to Condobolin, this site was affected by a major stem frost event on 3 August. Barley varieties suffered less damage from this frost than wheat varieties that were at a similar development stage. All barley varieties had increased yield as a result of delaying sowing until 19 May at this site (Table 5). Hindmarsh, La Trobe, Compass and Fathom sown on 19 May were the only varieties to achieve grain yield above 3 t/ha. The wheat varieties Mace, Corack and Emu Rock had similar yield as Buloke, Commander and GrangeR when sown on 19 May and with higher prices for wheat would have given higher returns than the previously mentioned four barley varieties. 

Table 5. Grain yield of seven barley varieties (denoted by ***) and 21 wheat varieties sown at three sowing dates at Lockhart in 2014.

National Barley Trials (nitrogen rate and target plant population)

Three National Barley Trials (common varieties, nitrogen rates and plant population targets across all GRDC regions) were sown in the region in 2014 at Gerogery, Condobolin and Parkes to determine the response of a core set of varieties to nitrogen rates and target plant populations across environments.

Gerogery

The Gerogery trial was the highest yielding of all the trials reported here. Compass achieved the highest yield in this trial (Table 8a), showing that as well as being a reliable performer in the low-medium rainfall sites it is a good performer in high yielding situations. There was no response to nitrogen in this trial (high N background) but there was a general yield increase in all varieties as a result of increasing target plant population from 75 to 150 and then to 300 plants/m² (Table 6b). La Trobe did not perform as well (relative to other varieties) as it did in the low-medium rainfall sites.

Table 6a: The effect of variety choice on grain yield of barley at Gerogery 2014

Parkes

GrangeR was the highest yielding variety at Parkes and Buloke the lowest yielding (Table 7a). Grain yield increased with the application of 30 kg/ha of N and increased further from the application of 90 kg/ha of N (Table 7b). There was a general yield increase in all varieties as a result of increasing target plant population from 75 to 150 and then to 300 plants/m² (Table 7c).  

Condobolin

There were significant differences between varieties for grain yield at Condobolin with Compass the highest yielding variety in this trial and GrangeR the lowest yielding variety (Table 8).

Table 8. Grain yield of eight barley varieties (across all nitrogen and plant population treatments) at Condobolin in 2014.

There was a significant interaction between seeding rate and nitrogen rate at Condobolin (Figure 4). Increasing target seeding rate from 75 to 150 plants/m² resulted in increased grain yield at all nitrogen levels. A further plant population increase to 300 plants/m² resulted in no change in grain yield for the nil and 30 kg/ha N rates but yield was reduced at the 90 kg/ha N rate. The combination of high N rates and a high population was excessive in the relatively dry environment at Condobolin.

Figure 4. The interaction between nitrogen rate and plant population on grain yield of barley at Condobolin in 2014.

National Variety Trials

There were seven NVT trials conducted across the southern region in 2014. Hindmarsh and La Trobe were relatively high yielding across most sites (Table 9). The main site where these varieties had relatively low yield was at Wagga Wagga where the soil pH was 4.1_Ca. Oxford, Commander and GrangeR achieved good yields in the medium to high rainfall zone sites but were relatively low yielding in the lower rainfall sites of Condobolin and Merriwagga. Compass had similar yields to Commander in the medium-high rainfall zone sites but was significantly higher yielding than Commander^A in the lower rainfall zone sites at Condobolin and Merriwagga. Fathom performed consistently well across sites but planting decisions need to be based on this variety being feed grade only. Flinders was average yielding at most sites. Scope was generally relatively low yielding but does contain imidazolinone tolerance to broaden weed control options.

Table 9. Grain yield of selected barley varieties in NVT trials in southern NSW in 2014.

Conclusion

There were differences in the performance of barley varieties across the southern region. Hindmarsh and La Trobe are most suited to low-medium rainfall zones with a sowing time of early to mid-May. Compass has performed consistently well across all rainfall zones and is only slightly slower to flower than Hindmarsh, so sowing date should be similar. Fathom also performed consistently well but is a feed only variety. Longer season varieties such as GrangeR and Oxford performed well in the higher yielding environments but were generally significantly lower yielding than faster varieties in drier environments.

These trials showed the benefits to grain yield of targeting populations of 150 plants/m² across all rainfall zones. This will enhance the competition of barley with weeds but analysis of grain quality from these trials (yet to be done) will determine if there is a negative impact on receival standards. The combination of high plant population and high nitrogen inputs may lead to reduced yield in lower rainfall environments.

Contact details

Rohan Brill
Wagga Wagga Agricultural Research Institute

02 69381989
rohan.brill@dpi.nsw.gov.au