Yield and protein concentration of spring malting barley: the effects of cropping systems in the Paris Basin (France)

Issue		Agron. Sustain. Dev. Volume 23, Number 1, January-February 2003


Page(s)		13 - 27
DOI		10.1051/agro:2002029

Agronomie 23 (2003) 13-27
DOI: 10.1051/agro:2002029

Yield and protein concentration of spring malting barley: the effects of cropping systems in the Paris Basin (France)

Marianne Le Bail^a and Jean-Marc Meynard^b

^a Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, Département AGER, UMR SAD-APT, 16 rue Claude Bernard, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
^b Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, UMR d'Agronomie INRA INA P-G, BP 01, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France

(Received 22 March 2001; revised 6 September 2001; accepted 19 February 2002)

Abstract
In an intensive farming region, where farmers achieve very good results with winter wheat or sugar beet, there are still many problems in achieving combined control of yield and grain protein concentration in spring malting barley. A regional agronomic diagnosis was performed on the variations of both these outputs, in a network of twenty farmers' fields for three years. Three key variables explained the joint variations in yield and protein concentration: total nitrogen absorbed by the crop, the efficiency of absorbed N relative to the number of grains, and mean grain weight. Analysis of variations for these variables, within the network, enabled us to understand which situations produced satisfactory results and which did not: available nitrogen in the soil, topsoil structure, crop water supply and the level of the root disease take-all, were the main environmental conditions affecting yield and grain protein concentration. Improvements in cropping systems and barley husbandry are proposed in order to increase yield and manage protein concentration.

Résumé
Rendement et taux de protéines de l'orge de printemps brassicole : effet des systèmes de culture dans le bassin parisien (France). Dans une région de culture intensive, où les agriculteurs ont de très bons résultats en blé et betterave sucrière, ils rencontrent quelques problèmes pour maîtriser à la fois le rendement et le taux de protéines de l'orge de printemps destinée à la brasserie. Un diagnostic régional a été réalisé sur les variations de ces deux composantes à partir de réseaux de parcelles agricoles (une vingtaine chaque année pendant trois ans). Trois composantes clés expliquent ces variations : l'azote absorbé par la culture, l'efficience de l'azote pour le nombre de grains et le poids moyen des grains. L'analyse de ces composantes permet de comprendre les situations dans lesquelles les performances de la culture sont plus ou moins satisfaisantes : l'azote disponible dans le sol, l'état structural de celui-ci, l'alimentation hydrique et les attaques racinaires de piétin échaudage sont les principales conditions qui affectent les performances de la culture. Des améliorations des systèmes de culture sont proposées en vue de maîtriser à la fois les niveaux du rendement et du taux de protéines.

Key words: grain nitrogen concentration / spring barley / topsoil structure / agronomic diagnosis / take-all / cropping systems

Mots clés : taux de protéines / orge de printemps / structure du sol / diagnostic agronomique / piétin échaudage / système de culture

Correspondence and reprints: Marianne Le Bail
e-mail: lebail@inapg.inra.fr

Communicated by Gérard Guyot (Avignon, France)

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