Adaptation of Winter Barley Cultivars to Inversion and Non-Inversion Tillage for Yield and Rhynchosporium Symptoms

Modern cereal cultivars are highly adapted to, and normally bred and trialled under, high input, high soil disturbance conditions. On-farm conditions are often suboptimal for high yield and frequently use minimal soil tillage, sometimes no-tillage, and therefore, cultivars may be differentially adapted to such conditions. We report a series of trials across 10 years comparing multiple cultivars within years and smaller numbers across years to identify stable cultivars showing preferential adaptation to different levels of soil tillage. Cultivars responded differentially to inversion and non-inversion tillage but were not affected by the level of cultivation within each of these tillage types. Yield declined over time but much more so in the non-inversion tillage treatment. Rhynchosporium symptoms were also increasingly suppressed in the non-inversion tillage type. Several cultivars were identified that showed strong adaptation to tillage type, and some of these were consistent across several trial years. These cultivars can be used to identify traits and genotypes associated with tillage adaptation to target breeding for on-farm conditions.