Farming talk: Hybrid barley could help growers respond to fertiliser costs
As farmers look to make savings on high fertiliser costs, new independent research has shown hybrid barley receiving a reduced dose of nitrogen fertiliser (N) can deliver similar yields to conventional winter barley receiving a higher, standard dose.
Conducted by ADAS, the research compared two hybrid barley varieties and two conventional two-row winter feed barley varieties at N doses from 0 to 360 kg/ha.
The work formed part of a larger programme of Syngenta evaluations into hybrid barley’s benefits that may help growers respond to sustainability challenges – including high fertiliser prices, a need to manage grass weeds sustainably, and a need to produce yields reliably for food security.
At 200 kg N/ha – a dose potentially used if pushing winter feed barley for yield – both hybrids significantly outyielded their conventional counterparts, producing 9.92 and 9.71 t/ha versus 8.19 and 8.13 t/ha for the conventional varieties. Dose response curves revealed a similar trend at a more standard 180 kg N/ha, but what was also relevant was the economic optimum N rate for the varieties.
Using a standard breakeven ratio for N fertiliser of 5:1, the data analysis revealed the hybrids required in the region of 65 kg/ha less N to achieve a similar yield to one of the conventional varieties.
The second conventional variety had an economic optimum N rate lower than the hybrids, but yielded around 1.0 t/ha less. These results should provide a level of confidence to growers who are looking to make modest reductions in their N rates with hybrid barley in response to cost and sustainability pressures.
Across a wide range of N rates in the trial, the hybrids also showed improved N utilisation efficiency over the conventional varieties, indicating that for the same amount of N taken up by the crop, the hybrids produced more yield.
Dr Sarah Kendall is ADAS project director
