11 varieties made it onto the recommended and provisionally recommended spring barley variety lists for the 2019 season.

The lists were published last week by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and signaled the end of an era for one very popular variety – Propino. Propino was a prevalent variety in both malting and feed and first made it onto the list in 2011.

Three more varieties – RGT Planet (recommended); KWS Cantton (provisional) and SY Errigal (provisional) – are on a relative yield rating of 103.

Gangway (recommended) and SY Arderin (provisional) both score 102 for relative yield, while KWS Irina is at the 100 mark.

The remaining varieties on the list are: Hacker (99; provisional); Limona (99; provisional); Paustian (98; recommended); and Mickle (97; recommended).

While relative yield gives a good indication of a varieties potential, it is important to choose a variety that will fit your system. Straw characteristics, grain quality and disease resistance traits should all be examined carefully.

Straw and ripening

A large number of varieties rate at 7 on the list for resistance to lodging. However, Paustian (6), RGT Planet (5), KWS Cantton (5) and Prospect (5) fall behind.

RGT Planet (4) and KWS Cantton (4) rate lowest for straw breakdown. The highest score across the varieties on this trait is 7.

Disease resistance

All but one of the 11 varieties on the list rated an 8 for resistance to mildew. Mickle scored just a 4 for mildew, but most who have grown the variety know its susceptibility to this disease, but to very little others.

Rhynchosporium wasn’t a serious disease issue in spring barley crops in the past three years. The majority of varieties rated 7 for resistance to the disease. KWS Irina came in at 6, while no score was available for the new varieties to the list as data was limited.

Gangway, KWS Irina, Limona and SY Errigal all came in at a score of 8 for resistance to net blotch. Mickle and Prospect were at the lower end of the spectrum at scores of 4 and 5 respectively.

Grain quality

SY Arderin rated highest for thousand grain weight (TGW) at 53.2g. This variety also had the lowest level of screenings. Gangway won out on hectolitre weight with a KPH reading of 67.8.

There was little variation in grain protein percentage. RGT Planet had the lowest protein reading at 10.8%. 11.3% was the highest level. Three varieties shared a reading of 11.3% – Mickle; Prospect; and SY Arderin.