Response of eighteen barley varieties to three planting times at Tamworth in 2012

Abstract

Key findings • In 2012 the optimum sowing window appeared to shift forward 10 days compared to the traditional flowering window between 20th of September to October 5th. • Fathom[PBR] emerged as a high yielding feed variety across all three planting times along with Grange[PBR] and Fairview[PBR]. • Oxford[PBR] performed well from the early planting time, which supports it’s strong performance in the past two seasons in the same trials. • The final TOS had 33% lower yields than TOS 1 and 2, which was likely a result of flowering time, lack of in season rainfall and the high incidence of frost during early development. • Maturity was not always a good indicator of yield performance from a given planting time, with quick maturing varieties yielding well with early plantings and long season varieties performing well from late season planting. Grain quality may better separate variety performance.