Evaluating wheat, barley and oats for early sowing in frost prone landscapes in Western Australia Wickepin 2017 and 2018

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

8-2019

Conference Title

Cells to Satellites: Proceedings of the 19th Australian Agronomy Conference - 25-29 August 2019

Place of Publication

Wagga Wagga

Keywords

Frost, wheat, barley, oats, early sowing

Disciplines

Agronomy and Crop Sciences

Abstract

Spring frosts can cause significant grain yield losses to cereals after head emergence. This trial examined the relative suitability of long, mid and short season wheat, barley and oats to early sowing in frost prone landscapes in WA at Wickepin in 2017-2018 with 4 sowing windows, . Trials were successful frosted in all seasons during the June to Oct; compared to wheat, oats and barley were less damaged by frost during flowering and grain fill and more profitable with early April sowing. With a mid-April sowing, Bannister oats achieved a higher grain yield and gross income compared to wheat and barley in 2017 and the highest yield and gross income of all sowing windows in 2018. With a late-May sowing, Bass barley achieved a higher grain yield and produced the highest gross income in frost-prone landscapes in 2017 and 2018. Sowing short-season wheat and barley varieties in April and late-April resulted in grain being either downgraded to feed and general-purpose milling in 2017 or having no commercial value at all in 2018. Wheat was not suitable for sowing in frost-prone landscapes relative to oats or barley but, of the wheat varieties evaluated, Forrest sown in mid-April in the high rainfall 2017 season (370mm GSR and early break) was competitive with barley and oats. Frost was not the only issue with early sowing, foliar disease pressure is also higher and contributed to yield decline along with frost particularly in Bass barley (leaf rust) and Durack oats (oat stripe blight) with mid- and late-April sowings in 2017. In Wickepin it is better to sow frost-prone areas in mid-April to early-May to long-season oats or in mid- to late-May to long- to mid-season barley varieties rather than sowing wheat.

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