Effect of tillage management on yield performance in barley

Abstract

A 3-yr study was conducted to assess the effect of tillage management on relative yield performance of selected cultivars of barley. The experiment was located on two differing textures of orthic black Chernozemic soils over 3 yr. Relative yields differed significantly between cultivars within tillage systems, and between tillage systems, sites and years. All interactions were also highly significant. This suggests that barley variety performance trials should be conducted under the same tillage management system across sites and years and that significant interactions should be identified and mitigated, wherever possible. Failure to do so could lead to misidentification of high yield-performance cultivars and subsequent loss of economic opportunities to producers.