Barley Fields Needed ASAP for Residual Nitrate Project

By Mitchell Japp, MSc, PAg

Fertilizing this year is going to be challenging. Fertilizer prices are exceptionally high, many fields will have much higher nitrate supply than is usual and stored soil moisture is limited or absent in some areas. Fertilizing malt barley presents unique challenges as well. Optimizing yield while keeping protein at marketable levels and preventing lodging are required to get malt barley accepted.

We know in pulse crops that at too high soil nitrate availability will inhibit N fixation. We started wondering if there was adequate information for malt barley growers to make good decisions about field selection and N fertilizer rates.

Here’s where we need your help! We need access to fields and to collect some data to better understand optimizing N fertilizer recommendations. If you’re interested, please let us know as soon as possible!