Barley trial front-runners

University of Adelaide barley program leader Jason Eglinton said new barley varieties were showing increased yield potential.

“Compass and Rosalind returned the highest grain yield in every trial except at Warooka on the Yorke Peninsula, where Keel ranked highest,” he said.

“Many of the varieties commercially grown in SA were lower yielding by a large margin, so there are good new options with higher productivity for farmers to consider.”

Segregation and marketing opportunities for La Trobe were emerging, with interest likely to grow with the possibility for growers to receive a price premium ahead of Hindmarsh.

“Scope has become popular for its herbicide tolerance but is outclassed agronomically, so the new option IGB1334T, which may be available in 2016, will be considered as an alternative,” Professor Eglinton said.

For farmers managing difficult sandy soils or looking for weed competition, feed variety Fathom would be an option for 2016 and was likely to start replacing Fleet.

He said Compass would make up a large amount of barley plantings this season.

“The early indications are that a larger-than-expected amount of Compass seed has been retained for sowing in 2016 and significant new seed sales are anticipated, so it is likely that Compass will represent a large proportion of SA production,” he said.

Varieties, such as Buloke, Fleet, Hindmarsh and Commander, will be under pressure to retain their roles.

“A disappointing feature of commercial production in 2015 was the amount of quality downgrades due to poor grain size,” he said. “The physical grain quality results from NVT...show major differences between varieties that can have a large effect on profitability,” he said.

Prof Eglinton said net form of net blotch was the most threatening disease in all areas, with the exception of the Mallee, where spot form net blotch was more common.