Barley Cultivar Performance Following Canola, Corn, Pea, and Spring Wheat.

High-residue farming practices are replacing conventional tillage methods in the U.S. northern Great Plains.  Small-grain cropping systems are becoming diversified because of the soil-water conservation that results when conservation-tillage practices are adopted.  Our objective was to determine if barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivar ranking changed when grown following four contrasting field crops under no-till management.  Six barley cultivars were grown after canola (Brassica napus L.), corn (Zea mays L.), pea (Pisum sativum L. subsp. sativum), and spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L. emend. Thell.) in a 2-yr crop sequence during 2010 through 2012 in southwestern North Dakota. An interaction between previous crops and cultivars was not detected for grain yield (P = 0.43).  There was an interaction between environment and previous crop (P = 0.03), with yields of only 3788 kg ha^-1 following corn in 2010 and 2298 kg ha^-1 in 2012, which were lower than those following the other three crops in both years.  Plant density considerations help explain the poor relative performance of barley following corn relative to other crops in 2012, but not in 2010.   No difference in barley yield was detected following corn and the other three crops in 2011.  The cultivar Conlon produced an average yield of 3014 kg ha^-1, which was lower than the five other cultivars (Conrad, Lacey, Pinnacle, Stellar-ND, and Tradition) across the 3-yr study.  Results of this study indicate that barley recommendations based on cultivar adaptation are unaffected by the preceding crop in northern portions of the Great Plains region under conditions similar to those encountered during this study.