Agronomic and varietal characteristics driving the growth of the Argentinean barley industry

ABELEDO GL; ALZUETA I; MIRALLES D.J

Melbourne

Simposio; 16th Australian Barley Technical Symposium; 2013

CSIRO

In Argentina barley crop increased its harvest area more than 4 fold in the last 6 years. The combination of (i) restrictions to wheat exportation from middle ?00, (ii) lower yield penalization in soybean due to an early field released of barley respect to wheat and (iii) the increase of yield potential of the new varieties introduced to the local market explained the increases of the barley area. Average National barley yield (3.7 Tons ha-1) is actually higher than wheat yield (3.1 Tons ha-1). Variations in phenology among the most popular commercial cultivars used in Argentina were explained by their differential responses to photoperiod during the pre-anthesis phases without differences in vernalization requirements. The cultivars introduced from Europe had lower photoperiod sensitivity than the traditional cultivars released in Argentina by local breeders. A simple model based on the variations in the duration of the phases was built to help the farmers to take decisions of the optimum timing to sow each of the cultivars.