Which barley varieties should I grow?
Dr. Tarlok Singh Sahota CCA
If you wish to grow barley for grain production, you may continue growing CDC Bow, but may
wish to add AB Brewnet (also a two row variety) along with CDC Bow. While the two varieties
gave similar grain yields (CDC Bow 6.55 MT/ha and AB Brewnet 6.52 MT/ha; averaged over
2020 and 2021), straw yield was 1.42 MT/ha higher from AB Brewnet than that from CDC Bow.
AB Brewnet seed may be procured from SeedNet (Contact: Elizabeth Tokariuk, General
Manager, Phone: 403-715-9771, Email: office@seednet.ca) or from Stamp Seeds (Contact: #9
Centre St, Box 3030, Enchant, AB T0K 0V0, Tel: 403 739 2233, Email:
office@stampseeds.com). Old varieties such as Boroe, Synasolis and Oceanik are still good to
grow as well.
If you are growing barley for forage (silage) production, you may choose to grow AAC Bell, a
two row feed/forage barley variety that gave 11.29 MT/ha dry matter forage yield with 11.3 %
protein and CDC Copper a two row dual purpose (malting and feed) barley variety that recorded
11.34 MT/ha dry matter forage yield with 10.5 % protein. Forage dry matter yield from CDC
Bow (10.15 MT/ha with 12.1 % protein) equaled that from CDC Churchill (10.19 MT/ha with
10.9 % protein), but was lower than that from AAC Bell and CDC Copper. AAC Bell seed can
be obtained from SeCan (Contact: 400-300 Terry Fox Dr, Ottawa, ON K2K 0E3, Tel: 613-592-
8600) and that of CDC Copper can be procured from FP Genetics (Contact: Nathan Penner
Manager, Commercialization, Cell: 204-361-5324, Email: npenner@fpgenetics.ca).
Any questions? Please let me know at tssahota@lakeheadu.ca or at 807-707-1987.