Familiar varieties shine during Hart annual trial

Site research and extension manager Rebekah Allen said the variety trials, carried out by the Hart Field Site Group, had shown what cereal options had performed best under a tough season.

"Last year was a really tough year and a very dry season," she said.

"Cereals were on the lower side with a decile one rainfall."

Ms Allen said Hart received just 162 millimetres of growing season rainfall, which was almost half the average of 300mm.

This came on the back of well below-average summer rains, leaving limited soil moisture, and only 8mm of rain in April, before most plots were sown in May.

Only June received above-average falls, before a dry finish to the season.

"We were lucky to still get some good data for trials conducted at Hart," Ms Allen said.

She said the other benefit of the trial site was the ability to track variety yield data across a number of years to see trends.

"We can see the varieties that perform well that are still able to perform in a really tough year," she said.

Ms Allen said overall cereal varieties yielded an average 1.2 tonnes a hectare to 2.4t/ha at the site.

In the wheat trials, the best Australian Hard Wheat varieties for 2019-20, yielding between 1.56-1.67t/ha, were Vixen, Beckom, Scout, Scepter, Cosmick, Emu Rock, Devil and Rockstar.

For Australian Premium White varieties, the best performers were Trojan, Cutlass and Sheriff CL Plus, with an average yield of 1.48t/ha.

Ms Allen said across the five-year average, Beckom, Scepter and Scout remained the highest performing wheat varieties.

In the barley varieties, yields ranged from 2.04-2.42t/ha, with a trial average of 2.25t/ha.

The best malt barley performers for 2019-20 were LaTrobe and Compass at 2.41t/ha and 2.38t/ha, respectively.

RGT Planet and Spartacus CL yielded well, as did Maximus CL, which is waiting on malt accreditation.

Ms Allen said new Clearfield barley varieties produced up to a 10 per cent yield increase above Scope.

Looking at long-term data, she said there were two standouts for barley.

"Compass and LaTrobe were the only two varieties that performed above average almost every year," she said.

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For feed barley, Rosalind, Fathom and Hindmarsh were the highest yielding, at the top end of the 2.24-2.42t/ha range, with long-term data showing these were perennial performers at Hart.

The Hart trials also included durum wheat, with a number of new varieties trialled in 2018 and 2019.

Standouts were Westcourt at 2.81t/ha and DBS Spes at 2.76t/ha, against an average yield of 2.63t/ha.

Winter wheats were also considered in these trials.

Lower to mid rainfall regions have increased access to early-sown winter wheats, but sowing time is critical, according to a trial at last year's Hart Field Site.

A GRDC-funded trial, alongside LaTrobe University, with the Hart Field Site Group and SARDI, looked at different sowing times of winter wheat varieties and the impact on yield.

Ms Allen said the trial showed there were winter wheat varieties that yielded comparatively to Scepter wheat, but sowing time was critical.

"The key highlight out of the trial were the highest yields for winter wheats came from those sown early to late April," she said.

Winter wheat Illabo and slower spring variety Nighthawk had the highest average across the three years.

She said the results showed croppers were able to get a large proportion of the farm sown early without impacting yield.

Ms Allen said another standout trial was Hart researcher Sarah Noack's three-year look at measuring the fertiliser dollar in wheat and barley, with two years in decile 1 seasons.

Wheat responded best when nitrogen was spread at 80 kilograms a hectare at seeding or growth stage 31. This also resulted in protein levels for maximum grade.

For barley, in a drier season, using less N - about 20kg/ha - yielded the best return on inputs.

Ms Allen said the take-home message was yield potential should be the major driver of N use.

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