The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is reporting a series of generally disappointing results from its 2021/2022 Recommended List (RL) winter barley trials.
The average yield of the control varieties in the treated trials was 9.72t/ha, just below the five-year average of 9.81t/ha.
However, the 2022 average masks wide variation: From 6.96t/ha to 12.31t/ha. This trend mirrors the wide variations in yield that have also been reported in commercial crops.
Trials
In the untreated trials, yields have held up well, with the average of the controls at 8.53t/ha, ahead of the five-year average of 8.14t/ha. This result reflects the dry year, with generally low disease pressure.
It has been a good year for six-row hybrids – except Bazooka. All outperformed their five-year averages in treated trials. Some two-row varieties also performed very well in the untreated series.
Yields are represented as a percentage of the control varieties.
In 2022, the control varieties comprise two malting varieties, Craft and Electrum; the six-row hybrid variety SY Kingsbarn; the six-row conventional variety Funky; and the two-row feed variety LG Mountain. The average of the yields from these varieties is represented as 100%.
In the treated trials, six-row hybrid SY Kingsbarn is the highest yielding on 109%, with SY Kingston, SY Thunderbolt and newly recommended SY Canyon on 108%, ahead of their five-year averages.
Belmont is on 107%, with Belfry on 105%. In the six-row hybrids, only Bazooka failed to exceed its five-year average, which it equalled (104%).
Of the six-row conventional varieties, newly recommended Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV)-tolerant KWS Feeris is on 104% and Funky is 103% in treated trials. It is important to note that RL trials are sprayed for aphids in the autumn to combat BYDV.
The best of the two-row feed varieties in the treated trials in 2022 are Bordeaux and the newly recommended variety Lightning (104%). Bolton is on 103%, followed by LG Mountain and Surge (102%).
Yield leading two-row variety on the RL, KWS Tardis, has had a disappointing year at 100% and seems to have struggled in some northern trials.
Malting
Two-row malting varieties are judged more on their quality than outright yield. The average yield of Electrum (96%) has held up, but Craft (91%) is below the five-year average.
In the untreated trials, newly recommended six-row hybrid SY Canyon is the clear leader on 114%, with six-row hybrid SY Thunderbolt and two-row variety Lightning also doing well on 110%, with the next highest-yielding variety being Surge on 108%.
The five-year average values (2018–2022) provide a better representation of performance across seasons.
In the treated trials, six-row hybrid yields are very similar on this measure, with SY Thunderbolt, SY Kingsbarn, SY Kingston, and SY Canyon all on 106%. Belmont is on 105% followed by Belfry and Bazooka on 104%.
Of the two-row feed varieties, KWS Tardis remains the highest yielding in the treated trials, despite its disappointing performance in 2022 (103%) with newly recommended Lightning, Bolton and Bordeaux also on 103%.
Of the other varieties, six-row conventional BYDV-tolerant variety, KWS Feeris, is on 103%, just ahead of Funky (102%). The malting varieties Electrum (96%) and Craft (94%) are, as expected, lower yielding.
In the untreated trials, newly recommended six-row hybrid SY Canyon is highest yielding at 110% of controls, ahead of newly recommended two-row variety Lightning (108%) Surge and SY Thunderbolt (107%).