Influence of seedding and N rates on grain characteristics of winter barley under semi-arid conditions

Abstract

Producers need to carefully consider environmental condirions and relative price incentives for producing high yield and high feding value grain when choosing the appropriate N rate for winter barley. In favorable years, increasing the N rate increased yield at the expense of grain characteristics associated with livestock fedd value, while in adverse years the opposite occurred. However, increasing N rate always increased the protein yield of barley. Altering seeding rates had no effect on the parameters measured. Livestock producers should recognize that differences in barley grain yield, protein concentration and bulk density commonly occur in semi-arid climates, and are often influenced by the N rate used.