M.C. Therrien and C.A. Grant
Agriculture
& Agri-Food Canada, Research Centre, P.O. Box 1000 A, Brandon, Manitoba R7A
5Y3
E-mail: Mtherrien@em.agr.ca
or Cgrant@em.agr.ca
Traditionally,
barley breeding selections have been made on summerfallow, to eliminate an
volunteer barley from previous crops. Also, producers have traditionally
planted malting barley on summerfallow to maximise available moisture and
control weeds. In recent years, many producers adopted some form of reduced
tillage for economic and environmental reasons. The effect of barley genotypes and reduced tillage on barley
malting quality is not well understood. Significant tillage effects on malting
quality could have a major impact at the farm gate level, as well as in a
breeding program. Therrien and Grant
(1998) were able to demonstrate significant genotype x tillage interactions for
grain yield and several other agronomic characteristics. Malting genotypes from
this previous experiment were further evaluated for three major malting quality
traits, which include alpha-amylase levels (AA), diastatic power (DP), and
percent malt extract (MEX). Data were analysed to determine the effects of
tillage management on malting quality.
A field study was conducted in three field environments with 2 malting barley cultivars and three tillage treatments to determine if tillage affects malting quality parameters. Percent malt extract (MEX) was significantly affected by tillage, whereas malt enzyme levels (alpha amylase, AA) and enzyme activity (diastatic power, DP) were not (Table 2). Genotype and environment affected all three malting quality traits, as well (Table 1). These findings have implications for both producers and plant breeders. For producers, there may be an economic advantage to growing malting barley under summerfallow conditions. For plant breeders, the importance of the relatively small contribution of tillage to the total variation in malting quality traits would have to be weighed against the additional costs and time associated with selection for malting quality under a dual tillage system.
Therrien,
M.C. and Grant, C.A. 1998. Effect of tiilage
management on yield performance in barley. Can. J. Plant Sci. 78: 301-303.
Table 1.
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for three malting quality traits in response to tillage management for two malting barley
cultivars grown in three environments
Alpha Amylase
Level:
Sums of Mean
Source df Squares Squares F
Value Probability > F
Total 71 5959.2
Cultivar
(C) 1 469.2
469.2 48.6 0.0001
Replicate
(R) 3 103.9
34.6 3.6 0.0184
Tillage (T)
2 1.2 0.6
0.06 0.9381
Environment
(E) 2 4776.7
2388.3 247.4 0.0001
Error 63 207.5 9.7
Diastatic Power
Level:
Sums of Mean
Source df Squares Squares F Value Probability > F
Total 71 1319600.7
Cultivar
(C) 1 83708.7
83708.7 34.3 0.0001
Replicate
(R) 3 51361.4 17120.5 7.0 0.0004
Tillage (T)
2 1165.0 582.5 0.2 0.7884
Environment
(E) 2 1029620.4
514810.2 211.0 0.0001
Error 63 153745.2 2440.4
Malt Extract
(%)
Sums of Mean
Source df Squares Squares F Value Probability > F
Total 71 1100.9
Cultivar
(C) 1 144.5
144.5 43.1 0.0001
Replicate
(R) 3 42.3
14.1 4.2 0.0090
Tillage (T)
2 23.1 11.5 3.4 0.0382
Environment
(E) 2 679.9
340.0 101.4 0.0001
Error 63 211.2 3.4
Table 2. Mean
values for three barley malting traits for two malting cultivars, three tillage
treatments, and three environments.
Conventional 15.6
298.5 58.8
Direct
Drill 15.7 302.9 58.6
Mean 15.6 298.2 59.1
Standard
Error 1.8(N.S.) 7.0(N.S.) 1.4(*)
Env 2 15.3 279.7 62.0
Env 3 5.7
161.8 54.8
Mean 15.6 298.2 59.1
Standard
Error 3.7(***) 59.8(***) 2.4(***)
Argyle 13.0 264.1 57.6
Mean 15.6 298.2 59.1
Standard
Error 3.0(***)
11.5(***) 1.9(***)
(N.S.;*;***; Not Significant, Significant at
the 5% and 0.1% levels, resp.)