Modern agriculture relies heavily on nitrogen fertilizer, but growing plants recover only about 50 percent of it.
Improved nitrogen uptake would reduce input costs and reduce the negative effects of excessive nutrients on the environment, said a researcher from Alberta Agriculture’s Field Crop Development Centre at Lacombe.
“If we tried to improve nitrogen use efficiency, we could reduce input costs for the producer,” Yadeta Anbessa said at the Canadian Barley Symposium in Calgary July 9-10.
Nitrogen use is increasing around the world.
In Canada, it has risen from 200,000 tonnes in 1960 to 1.8 million tonnes in recent years, while global use has increased from 10 million tonnes to 100 million tonnes. The world is expected to use 240 million tonnes of nitrogen by 2050.
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“There is huge money going into fertilizer,” said Anbessa, who develops cultivars with superior ability to acquire more nitrogen and use it more efficiently for the production of biomass and grain.
He collects information on genetic variability for nitrogen uptake by evaluating 25 spring barley genotypes across six sites in Alberta.
In 2009, his team assembled hundreds of germplasm into a breeding program, including Vivar and Xena.
They found that Vivar, a semi dwarf type, has been the superior variety.
“We came to the conclusion that Vivar has continued to be our most efficient line, but some other lines are good,” he said. These could be entered into a breeding program.
Agronomic studies are also on-going at the Lacombe centre in co-operation with Agriculture Canada.
Nitrogen builds protein, and researcher John O’Donovan is running a three year trial that started in 2010 to see what application rates are most favourable for malting barley.
A barley sample is rejected for malt if it has more than 12.5 percent protein. The tests involved CDC Meredith, Copeland, Major, Bentley and Merit 57, an American variety.
They were grown under no till conditions and nitrogen was applied in the form of side banded urea.
Plots were located on all soil zones across the Prairies. Researchers used five fertilizer rates and measured various agronomic qualities as well as kernel weights, plumpness and protein content.
They found that a higher seeding rate reduced plumpness, but malt extract was not affected.
Meredith has tended to lodge more than the others, especially varieties grown in black soil zones.
“We underestimate the impact of lodging on barley in the Prairies,” O’Donovan said.
More lodging occurred, protein levels rose and yields started to drop as nitrogen rates increased.
“As a farmer you are putting out nitrogen for a hell of a lot of money to increase the yield and you are getting a double whammy,” he said.
“Not only are you getting reduced yield, it is costing you a lot more.”
