Evaluation of barley testing locations in Ontario

To develop new barley cultivars, promising genotypes are evaluated for their performance each year at several test locations representing the target region. In this study, we analyzed the Ontario barley registration trial data from 2015 to 2020 to understand the barley mega-environment in Ontario and to evaluate the suitability of the test locations. The analysis showed that the barley test locations fall into two mega-environments, with a major mega-environment consists of five test locations and a minor mega-environment with a single test location. Among the six test locations used for the barley registration trials, Palmerston was found to be the most desirable for the barley cultivar evaluation representing the Ontario barley growing region. This study also identified OB2930-35, a recently released cultivar, to be both high yielding and stable across Ontario. These findings are useful for future barley breeding and cultivar evaluation in Ontario.