South Perth, Western Australia
February 22, 2007
Western Australia’s barley
landscape has changed with Gairdner and Baudin overtaking
Stirling as the most popular varieties grown in the State.
After dominating the barley acreage since 1984, Stirling has
fallen behind Baudin and Gairdner, each with sowing areas of 23
per cent in 2006 compared to Stirling at 21 per cent.
Department of Agriculture
and Food barley researcher Blakely Paynter said the area
sown to Stirling had dropped rapidly over the last six years
following the release of new high quality malting varieties.
“In the late 1980s, Stirling dominated production and accounted
for more than 80 per cent of barley plantings. In 2001, it
covered 64 per cent of plantings and has since decreased by
eight per cent per year.
“In the higher rainfall areas, growers have made the shift to
the malting varieties Gairdner and Baudin because of their
higher grain yield potential. In other areas, Stirling has been
displaced by the malting variety Hamelin and the feed barley
variety Mundah.”
Mr Paynter said the swing to Mundah and feed barley in general
had been associated with a run of variable seasons which had
affected the probability of malting barley being received as
malting.
He said the area sown to varieties with a feed classification
had increased from 13 per cent in 2001 to around 20 per cent in
2006.
“The decline in area sown to Stirling is expected to continue
over coming seasons as markets chase malting barley varieties
with higher malting quality and the latest malting variety
Vlamingh becomes more widely sown,” Mr Paynter said.
“There are also new feed varieties such as Fleet Australia and
Hindmarsh that are showing promise in variety evaluation trials
for sowing in Western Australia.”
Table 1. Percent of barley acreage sown to different barley
varieties (based on CBH grower returns).
|
% of
barley area sown to each variety by season |
Variety |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
Gairdner |
17 |
25 |
31 |
25 |
23 |
23 |
Baudin |
0 |
0 |
1 |
13 |
21 |
23 |
Stirling |
64 |
55 |
46 |
33 |
26 |
21 |
Mundah |
4 |
5 |
7 |
10 |
11 |
13 |
Hamelin |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
10 |
Yagan |
1 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
Schooner |
7 |
6 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
Fitzgerald |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Molloy |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Barque |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Other
feed |
6 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
Malt
varieties |
87 |
86 |
84 |
79 |
80 |
79 |
Feed
varieties |
13 |
14 |
16 |
21 |
20 |
21 |
|
|