Ontario Grain Farmer December 2023 / January 2024

Agronomy

Matt McIntosh

More winter barley acres HIGHER YIELDS AND MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

SIGNIFICANT JUMPS IN yield potential and a desire to expand rotation options are making new winter barley varieties a more attractive rotational option in Ontario — the direct result being an increase in winter barley acres across the province. IMPROVED WINTER SURVIVAL According to Joanna Follings, cereals specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the spike in yield potential has largely been driven by improvements in winter survivability. Indeed, poor survivability and the preponderance of thin stands in spring — and the resulting poor yields — was a big

reason the crop has been historically maligned in Ontario. Remedying this issue by incorporating new European genetics has made quite a difference and aligns a more general interest in better rotational diversity, similar to what many growers have done with crops such as winter canola. "Some interest comes from a higher diversity, spreading risk across multiple crops, and also looking for other opportunities in the cereal space. In places like Lambton, where winter canola works, for example, winter barley fits well with that rotation. Some growers in Lambton have had really great yields with winter barley," says Follings. She adds the crop is also ready for harvest

a couple of weeks earlier than winter wheat, making double-crop soybeans a more viable option. NEW VARIETIES REGISTERED Two new varieties have made headway — Calypso, which makes good livestock feed, and Ruzena, a two-row variety that can be malted. This comes after decades of no new genetics being registered in the province. Elevator, grain merchant, and seed supplier Cribit Seeds has been working with SeCan — the registrant of Calypso and Ruzena — trialling winter barley genetics. According to Quentin Martin, Cribit Seeds co-owner, and Julia Kimber, seed sales and marketing manager, their 2023 sales of winter barley seed are nearly double the previous year's sales. "The last Ontario-bred barley would have come from [the University of] Guelph, but even that would have been the early 80s. Ontario trials of certified winter barley varieties were phased out 30 years ago,” says Martin. "It’s hard to say what percentage of acres new genetics make up, but it’s safe to say a very high per cent of acres will be new genetics.” Martin and Kimber say such impressive genetic improvements now make it easier to ask farmers to grow the crop. “The farmer in us, when asking someone to grow a crop, it’s hard to grow something like spring barley at 1.5 tons per acre. That’s a hard ask. This adds another option to increase the per cent of cereals in the rotation. Winter barley yields two times what spring barley does. It’s not often you get to say something is going to yield twice as much,” Martin says. WINTER BARLEY MARKETS Kimber says winter barley is valued for its nutritional properties (similar to corn, but

WINTER BARLEY WAS PLANTED AT THE CRIBIT SEEDS WINTERBOURNE LOCATION ON OCTOBER 2, 2023. PHOTO COURTESY OF CRIBIT SEEDS.

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