MN Barley

By Kevin Smith, John Wiersma, Ruth Dill-Macky, Jochum Wiersma, and Ed Schiefelbein

Yield averages for barley in Minnesota were 75 bu/A compared to 39 bu/A last year resulting in production of about 12.8 million bushels.  ‘Robust’ remains the dominant barley variety grown in Minnesota occupying 57.3% of the acreage.  ‘Lacey’ acreage increased to 32.3% followed by ‘Excel’ (2.2%), ‘Conlon’ (2.0%), ‘Stander’ (1.5%), Royal (1.5%) and ‘Legacy’ (1.3%). In general, growing conditions were very good across the Minnesota with adequate moisture through grain fill.  Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and the resulting contamination of the harvested grain with the toxin deoxynivalenol (DON) continue to be a problem for production of malting barley. None of the current varieties approved for malting differ in their reaction to FHB. However, of all the barley varieties tested, Stander is slightly more susceptible and MNBrite slightly less susceptible to FHB.

The results of the state yield trials are summarized in Table 4 and 5. The variety trials are grown in St. Paul, Morris, Crookston, Stephen, and Roseau. Severe storms caused at least some lodging in most locations and severe lodging in St. Paul resulting in the loss of that location in 2003. The average yields in the trials were higher for 2003, particularly in the northern locations of Roseau and Stephen
(Table 4). Excel, Stander, and Lacey were the highest yielding varieties based on three year averages (Table 4). ‘Tradition’ is a new variety from Busch Agricultural Resources Inc. and was evaluated in all of the locations in 2003 and selected locations in prior years.  ‘Tradition’ along with the recent varieties Lacey, Drummond, and Legacy all yielded more than the dominant variety Robust by 16%, 14%, 16%, and 6%, respectively, based on 2003 data.  Drummond is the most lodging resistant of the group, while Legacy is the latest to head (Table 5).  All of the newly released varieties are shorter than Robust (Table 5).

Table 3. Disease Reactions of Hard Red Spring Wheat Varieties in Minnesota in Multiple Year Comparisons (1999-2003).

			Other	Fusarium Head Blight
	Leaf	Stem	Leaf	Disease	Grain
Variety	Rust 1	Rust 1	Diseases 1	Severity 1	Soundness 2
Briggs	MR-MS	R	MR	MR-MS	2.5
Oklee	MS	R	MR	MR-MS	2.5
Walworth	MS	R	MS	MR-MS	2.5
Dapps	MR	R	MR-R	-	-
Oxen	MS	R	MS	MS-S	3.0
Alsen	MR	R	MR-R	MR	2.0
Reeder	MS	R	MR-R	MS	3.5
Knudson	R	R	MR-R	MR-MS	3.0
Mercury	MS	R	MR	S	5.0
Parshall	MS	R	MR-R	MR-MS	2.0
Russ	MS	R	MS	MR-MS	3.0
Hanna	MS	R	MR	MR	2.0
2375	MS	R	S	MR-MS	2.5
Dandy	MS	R	MR	MS	3.5
HJ98	MS	R	MS	MS	3.0
NorPro	MR	R	MR-R	MS	3.5
Verde	MR-MS	R	MR-R	MS	3.5
Granite	MS	R	MR	–	–
Ivan	R	R	MR-R	MS-S	4.0
Marshall	MS	R	MS	MS	3.5

¹ 2001 and 2002.       ²   2001 and 2003.    ³   Not evaluated in all years.

Table 4. Relative Grain Yield of Barley Varieties at Several Locations in Minnesota in Single Year (2003) and Multiple Year Comparisons (2001-2003).

	Crookston		Morris		stephen		St. Paul	Roseau		State		On-Farm
	1 yr	3yr	1yr	3yr	1yr	3yr	2yr 1	1 yr	2yr 2	1yr	3yr	1yr	3yr
	------------------------------------% of mean---------------------------------------
Robust	81	94	87	85	94	100	88	97	100	90	92	93	96
Excel	103	102	97	101	102	107	104	98	99	104	104	-	-
Stander	106	105	103	102	97	108	104	113	96	101	104	-	-
MNBrite	88	93	101	98	106	105	95	112	102	96	96	-	-
Lacey	103	100	105	102	98	99	116	98	100	103	103	103	105
Drummond	121	110	102	100	97	93	104	101	109	105	100	97	98
Legacy	90	90	97	98	101	101	94	91	128	96	96	105	103
Tradition	110	110	108	111	104	-3	-3	100	-3	105	-3	-	-
Mean (bu/A)	94	94	94	87	97	70	72	128	117	102	87	134	87
LSD (0.05)	18	11	15	12	12	10	13	20	14	9	6	6.5	6.2

¹ 2001 and 2002.     ² 2001 and 2003.     ³ Not evaluated in all years.

Table 5. Agronomic Characteristics of Barley Varieties in Minnesota in Multiple Year Comparisons (2000-2003).

	Use /	Heading	Height	Lodging	Plump	Protein
Variety	Type	Days	Inches	%	%	%
Robust	Malt	56	35	med.	82	12.5
Excel	Malt	56	33	med.	77	12.2
Stander	Feed	56	32	strong	85	12.0
MNBrite	Feed	56	35	med.	82	13.4
Lacey	Malt	55	32	strong	83	12.2
Drummond	Malt	55	33	v. strong	79	12.5
Legacy	Malt	57	34	med.	74	11.8
Tradition1	Malt	56	33	med.	-	-

¹   New variety from Busch Ag. Resources, Inc.  Only three years of data, 2001-2003.

Industry Brewing Quality Evaluation
There are some important differences among the recently released malting varieties that have been approved by the American Malting Barley Association (AMBA).  Lacey, released by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, has been rated acceptable by Miller Brewing Co. and is still undergoing evaluation by Anheuser Busch (AB).  Legacy and Tradition, both released by Busch Agricultural Resources Inc., have been rated acceptable by AB, but are still being evaluated by Miller.  Drummond, a North Dakota State University release, has been rated accepted for malting by both AB and Miller.  Growers should keep this information in mind when making plans for planting this spring and marketing grain next fall. The variety utilization picture could change as industry continues evaluations and makes decisions about how to use these new varieties.  AMBA provides periodic updates on the status of new varieties and regularly publishes their list of recommended varieties
(www.ambainc.org ).