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Barley production in Western Australia

WA Barley - Pests, weeds and diseases

Western Australian barley growers have a world-wide reputation for producing a reliable supply of high quality, contaminant-free barley. Over 1,500,000 tonnes of barley are produced annually in Western Australia and sold for malting, shochu production, human consumption or stock feed. Approximately 85% of Western Australian barley production is exported and the industry is an important participant in the international barley trade, particularly in the malting barley trade where it offers around one sixth of the worlds' traded malting barley.

Barley is an important grain industry in Western Australia, second in production only to wheat. It is an integral part of cropping systems due to its high yields, timeliness of on-farm activities, particularly seeding and harvest operations, as well as rotational benefits offering a break in leaf and root disease cycles. It currently offers a good profit margin in comparison to other cropping options and this has led to the doubling of barley production in Western Australia over the past 15 years.

This barley-based website contains information on many aspects of barley production in Western Australia. Use the site map below to guide you to all of the information links provided.

Barley Site Map

• Barley Varieties
  Characteristics
  Disease resistance
  Crop Variety Sowing Guide
  Choice of variety
  Barley variety classification
  Variety descriptions
  Variety suggestions and performance
  
• Marketing and Economics
  Marketing barley
  Economics of growing barley
  
  1. Consumer Products
     Malt products
     Brewing
     Shochu
     Stockfeed
     
• Crop Establishment
  Paddock Selection
  Crop rotation
  Preferred rotations
  Soil type
  Problem soils
  Acidity and Aluminium
  Boron toxicity
  Waterlogging
  Salinity
  
• Seed selection and sowing date
  Purchasing new seed
  Growing your own seed
  Buying seed from a neighbouring farm
  Seed testing
  Sowing date
  
• Seed rate, depth and spacing
  Calculate seeding rate
  Seeding depth
  Row spacing
  
• Nutrition
  Essential nutrients
  Nitrogen
  Phosphorous
  Sulphur
  Potassium
  
  1. Soil and plant analysis and trace elements
     Soil testing
     Plant tissue testing
     Trace elements
     Zinc
     Manganese
     Copper
     
  2. Nutrient toxicities and deficiencies
     Boron
     Soil acidity and aluminium toxicity
     Nutrient deficiencies
     
• Barley leaf, head and root diseases
  Causes of barley diseases
  Chemical control
  Effectiveness of management
  Integrated disease management
  
• Barley leaf and head diseases: BYDV, smut, leaf rust
  Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus
  Covered smut
  Loose smut
  Barley leaf rust
  
  1. Barley leaf and head diseases: Scald and net blotches
     Scald
     Net-type net blotch
     Spot-type net blotch
     
  2. Leaf and head diseases: Mildew, leaf spot, other diseases
     Powdery mildew
     Physiological leaf spotting
     Other leaf diseases
     
  3. Root diseases: take all, Rhizoctonia, root lesion nematode
     Take all
     Rhizoctonia bare patch
     Root lesion nematodes
     
  4. Other root diseases
     Cereal cyst nematode
     Fusarium crown rot
     Common root rot
     Pythium root rot
     
• Insects and Weeds
  Insect descriptions (DAFWA website)
  Plant damage (DAFWA website)
  Field pests
  Stored grain pests
  Stored grain protection (DAFWA website)
  Stored grain insects (DAFWA website)
  
  1. Barley weeds
     Herbicides
     Broad-leaved weeds
     Grass weeds
     Integrated weed management
     
  2. Herbicides Guiding principles for good herbicide use
     Pre-sowing knockdown herbicides
     Pre-emergence selective herbicide
     Early post-emergence herbicides
     Later post-emergence herbicides
     
• Threats to the WA barley industry
  Fusarium Head Blight
  Stripe rust
  Wheat diseases
  
• Harvesting
  Harvesting
  Direct heading
  High moisture harvest
  Swathing
  
  1. Weather damage and varietal purity
     Kernel discolouration
     Germ-end staining
     Fungal staining
     Pink staining
     Pre-harvest sprouting
     Cleaved barley
     Varietal purity
     Grain quality
     
  2. Harvest damage
     Colour
     Grain size
     Grain protein
     
  3. Post Harvest
     Cleaning and grading
     Grain drying
     Aeration
     On-farm storage
     
• WA Barley Industry
  Barley production
  Malting barley
  Feed barley
  Shochu
  Western Region Barley Council
  Malting Barley Quality Technical Sub-committee
  
  1. Research
     Barley Breeding
     Molecular Genetics
     Doubled Haploids
     Germplasm
     Pathology
     Agronomy
     Quality evaluation
     Industry development
     Crop Variety Testing
     

FIRST COMPILED BY - Roslyn Jettner and Pam Burgess from contributions by officers of the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia.
UPDATED IN 2006 BY - Richard O'Donnell, Alaina Smith and Blakely Paynter
CONTRIBUTORS - R. Jettner, B Paynter, M O'Connell, J Moore, V Stewart, K Jayasena, L Price, A Tarr, C Li, S Gupta, C Grime and S Broughton. Information from The Barley Book, edited by Kevin Young, and Farmnotes prepared by officers of the Department of Agriculture and Food have been used in compiling this site.
PHOTO CREDITS - R Jettner, R Loughman and other officers of the Department of Agriculture and Food.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - We would like to thank the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Grain Pool Pty Ltd and the Department of Agriculture and Food for financial assistance in preparing this site.

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Page updated: June 2006