Below average yields, but positive results, have come out of the 2021 Hart Field Site Group cereal trials, released earlier this month.
Coordinated by research and extension manager Rebekah Allen, the trial was heavily influenced by below average rainfall and a major weather event bookending the season.
This lead to lower yields across the board, according to Ms Allen, but barley varieties handled the abnormal season well.
"The majority of the feed and malting barley varieties actually performed well," she said.
New varieties trialed in 2021 included Minotaur and Cyclops, both released by AGT in 2021, in addition to Commodus CL, which was released by InterGrain in 2020.
Feed varieties Fathom and Rosalind performed well, according to Ms Allen, with yields between 2.75 tonnes a hectare and 2.79t/ha, with the average barley yield for all varieties trialed at Hart at 2.61t/ha.
The highest yielding malt varieties were Compass, Leabrook, Commodus CL (pending accreditation) and Maximus CL, yielding between 2.51-2.91t/ha.
RGT Planet, Spartacus CL and Scope CL were lower yielding this season, ranging from 1.98-2.23t/ha, although long-term yield data showed Compass and RGT Planet had performed similar or greater than the annual trial average across a number of years.
"For barley, most varieties performed well. The season didn't favour early or later maturing varieties," Ms Allen said.
"Leabrook is a newer variety, and that's continuing to perform well in the past couple of seasons.
"It's also good to see some newer varieties coming through, that are still pending malt accreditation, yielding quite well at about 2.6-2.9t/ha - quite good considering the season.
"Fathom and Rosalind continue to perform really well - that wasn't a surprise."
In the wheat trials, early maturing varieties had higher yields this season, which Ms Allen attributed to the region's drier-than-average growing season.
"Vixen, Scepter and Calibre were the highest yielding Australian hard varieties and they are typically earlier maturing," she said.
"APW varieties to perform really well were Sheriff CL Plus, Chief CL Plus and LongReach Trojan - reaching 1.75-2.18t/ha.
"Those yields are a little bit lower than we did see across the region, but that's likely due to those drier conditions."
Wheat yields ranged from 1.55-2.64t/ha, with a trial average of 2.03t/ha.
Vixen, Scepter and Calibre yielded 2.64t/ha, 2.29t/ha and 2.27t/ha respectively.
Long-term data showed Vixen and Scepter yielded above the trial average across multiple seasons at Hart.
New varieties Ballista, Calibre, Hammer CL Plus and APH variety Sunblade CL Plus performed well, but still required further evaluation across a range of seasons.
Sheriff CL Plus, Chief CL Plus and LongReach Trojan were the highest performing APW varieties, yielding from 1.89-2.18t/ha.
Although long-term yield data for APW varieties trialed at Hart remains variable, Sheriff CL Plus and Chief CL Plus performed well during the past two seasons, consistently yielding above the trial average.
"Vixen, Scepter and Calibre also ranked in the top 10 yielding varieties in the National Variety Trials at Spalding and Turretfield," Ms Allen said.
"I recommend people jump online, look at the Hart results and look at the NVT results across different districts just to get a gauge of how those varieties are performing.
"Scepter, the benchmark for every other variety we trial, is still continuing to perform well across a number of seasons, but Vixen is really up there too, which is good to see."
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Ms Allen said the crops faced challenges such as lodging and shattering due to the weather, as well as the dry start to the season.
"People were actually starting to dry sow and didn't really get an opening rain until the end of May - which was about 23 millimetres over a few days," she said.
"Everything germinated at the same time at Hart, which probably influenced yield results and reduced yield potential.
"We had really good rainfall for June and July, so those earlier (wheat) varieties were able to utilise that and because they're not relying on later, winter and spring rainfall to develop.
"We've really only trialed a couple of longer season wheats, but most of those are still mid-maturing.
"We had a peak (rainfall) in November of about 100mm, but that was just was way too late.
"Things had already started to develop grains, so that really only helped the actual grain fill - it didn't really assist in yield potential.
"Some people reported sprouting, but we were lucky enough we didn't see that at Hart."
Despite the major weather events at the end of the season, Ms Allen said the most significant variable in the trials was the lack of adequate rainfall early on.
"I think the yield results we are seeing were really coming from the performance of those varieties under dry conditions," she said.
"I don't think the yield result that we have were because of the rain - it certainly reduced the yield of all varieties - but the dry conditions were the main variable."
Ms Allan said 2021 really favoured the varieties that were a quicker growing and could perform better in drier environments.
Full trial results will be released at Hart's Getting The Crop In seminar on March 9.
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