Drought or disease can dash a farmer’s hope of achieving malting grade barley but there are agronomic steps to improve the chance of selection.
“Environmental conditions can play a huge role in terms of barley yield, protein and kernel plumpness,” said Ross McKenzie of Alberta Agriculture.
He and other researchers have been testing varieties under several conditions across the Prairies for more than 10 years. Some of those results were presented at the Western Barley Growers Association annual meeting Feb. 13 in Calgary.
Less than 25 percent of barley samples are selected for malt.
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Selectors want barley with 11 to 12.5 percent protein, less than five percent peeled or broken kernels and more than 80 percent plump kernels.
The sample must be free of disease, frost or heat damage with little weathering or staining. It should not be artificially dried and contain no herbicide residue.
Meeting those specifications can be improved with good agronomic practices by following proper crop rotations, selecting appropriate varieties and high quality seed, early planting and measured nitrogen applications.
The Alberta study tested barley on 20 sites across the province on a range of soil types and weather conditions. A second study in three prairie provinces looked at nitrogen levels, seeding rates and the effect of direct seeding into stubble.
The study assessed how soil nitrogen plus fertilizer affected grain protein and plumpness. Protein levels did not increase above 13.5 percent unless soil and fertilizer nitrogen was more than 150 pounds per acre and moisture was below normal. In dry years it is difficult to achieve more than 80 percent plumpness in the samples.
Under irrigation, protein levels were moderate.
“Increasing nitrogen tends to knock the kernel size back,” McKenzie said.
Yields almost always increased with extra nitrogen but the stems weakened and caused lodging, especially with a higher seeding rate. Lodged stands may result in rejection.
Nitrogen can be side banded and it is important to assess soil moisture and type to get a good yield without building too much protein in the kernel.
For example, in the brown soil zone if there are two inches of stored soil moisture plus six inches of rain, soil and fertilizer nitrogen should add up to 50 lb. per acre.
If there are four inches of stored moisture plus an extra six inches throughout the summer, the rate can increase to 65 lb.
In the dark brown soil zone, if there are two inches of moisture plus four inches of rain, 65 to 80 lb. of nitrogen are possible.
Seeding dates are also important.
In McKenzie’s view, the earlier the crop goes in the ground, the better. At Lethbridge, plots were seeded by the end of April. Delayed seeding by up to 20 days reduced grain yield potential by 20 to 25 percent.
“Every day you delay seeding by the last of April you lose about a percent (yield) per day. As we delayed seeding, the protein seemed to go up,” he said.
Most locations showed early seeding resulted in higher yields and greater plumpness, lower malt protein and beta glucan levels, and better friability numbers. Friability indicates endosperm breakdown during malting. The higher its level, the better.
Early seeding advances the crop before diseases start in June. Disease can reduce plumpness and yields.
Higher seeding rates benefit many crops but it does not work well for malting barley. The final yield is up, but kernel plumpness goes down because more seeds are packed into the head.
The research showed if there were 500 plants to a sq. metre, only 70 percent were plump; 100 plants per sq. metre resulted in about 90 percent plump kernels.
McKenzie advocates direct seeding into stubble.
The highest yield of barley was on pea stubble at the different sites, partly because of the fixed nitrogen left from the pea crop.
When barley is seeded on barley, there is higher disease pressure, especially in a wet year.
“This is something you really shouldn’t be doing,” he said.
