2001 COLORADO SPRING CEREAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE TRIALS

Introduction

            Making Better Decisions is a publication intended for use by farmers, seedsmen, consultants, agribusiness, and others. Colorado State University crops researchers try to provide reliable and unbiased performance trial results in a timely manner to Colorado cereal producers. Good information can lead to better variety selection and faster adoption of higher yielding varieties.

            The Spring Cereal publication is a collection of all variety performance trials conducted by Colorado State University researchers working on spring wheat, spring barley, and oats. Crops Testing issues the annual report but the trials are conducted in all four corners of the state by different researchers. Scott Haley screens spring wheat varieties at Akron and at Walsh. Merle Dillon hosts high-yield barley, wheat, and oat trials at Center. Mark Stack and Abdel Berrada test barley, wheat, and oat varieties at Yellow Jacket, and Calvin Pearson tests barley, wheat, and oat varieties at Hayden and Fruita. The sum of this collection of work is quite impressive.

            CSU’s Crops Testing program publishes current trial results on the Crops Testing Internet page: www.colostate.edu/Depts/SoilCrop/extension/CropVar/index.html

Table 1. Dryland spring barley performance trial at Hayden¹ in 2001.

¹Trial conducted on the Dutch and Mike Williams farm; seeded 4/30 and harvested 9/5.

Site Information:

Seeding rate: 56 lbs seed/acre

Herbicide: An application of 2,4-D at 0.50 lb/acre was made on June 1, 2001.

Fertilizer: Nitrogen fertilizer at 20 lbs N/acre as 34-0-0 was applied on May 27, 2001.

Irrigation: Precipitation during the 2001 growing season for the months of April, May, June, July, August, September, and October was 0.98, 1.37, 0.69, 1.49, 1.51, 0.90, and 0.99 inches, respectively. Precipitation in the Craig/Hayden area varies considerably from month to month and year to year and is the most limiting factor for dryland grain yields.

Comments: Grain yield in the spring barley variety performance test averaged 23.9 bushels/acre and ten of the twenty-six were considered high yielding compared to other varieties. Grain yield ranged from a high of 29.1 bu/acre for Steptoe to a low of 9.1 bu/acre for Coors C40. Grain moisture averaged 9.7% (Table 2). Grain moisture ranged from a high of 10.8% for Bancroft to a low of 8.9% for Coors T57. Test weight averaged 48.9 lbs/bushel. Test weight ranged from a high of 50.6 lbs/bushel for Hector to a low of 46.2 lbs/bushel for Steptoe. Plant height averaged 14.2 inches. There was not statistically significant differences among the varieties for plant height. There was no lodging in the spring wheat variety performance test in 2001.

Table 2. Irrigated spring malting barley performance trial at Center¹ in 2001.