New barley variety shows promising yield potential

A new barley variety - better suited to earlier sowing than other spring barley varieties - could help growers boost yields.

Plotting a course: University of Adelaide barley breeder Amanda Box in a plot of the new barley variety laperouse, which is expected to boost yields and tackle lodging, and, inset, an indication of the variety’s good straw strength.

A NEW barley variety with higher yield potential and impressive straw strength will be available to growers next year.

Laperouse, bred at the University of Adelaide and developed by French barley breeding company SECOBRA, has been tested in the National Variety Trials System since 2016.

Barley breeder Amanda Box, who bred the grain at the University of Adelaide, said the variety offered a boost in yield, had good straw strength and was competitive in its resistance to lodging.

“It has shown good grain yield and physical grain quality, as well as exceptionally good straw strength and standability,” Ms Box said.

“Laperouse has better straw in terms of lodging, which we saw in 2016 results.”

She said the barley’s grain size and straw strength were more advanced compared with varieties such as planet.

The variety is also better suited to early sowing than other spring barley varieties.

Ms Box said laperouse was best grown in medium to high rainfall zones of Victoria, NSW and Western Australia.

Growers could also save on inputs such as fungicides, Ms Box said, as the barley had been bred to improve both net and spot forms of net blotches.

However, there were some diseases breeders needed to “keep an eye on”.

“We do need to monitor scald with the variety as it could be susceptible to that,” Ms Box said.

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The new variety is undergoing malt accreditation, with a few commercial malt evaluation crops to be trialled this year.

Laperouse will be in seed production this year and is expected to be available to growers next year, and seed will be available from Seednet Partners across Australia.

“The variety is so far only limited to Seednet Partners, however a few growers in NSW have been contracted to grow it,” Ms Box said.