A note on the effect of nitrogen timing on the grain yield of winter barley.

Previous work in Ireland (Conry, 1986) showed that timing and splitting of nitrogen had only a small effect on grain yield and quality of winter barley where the total nitrogen applied was 120 kg N/ha. In the experiments reported here an application rate of 160 kg N/ha was investigated. The results confirm that the same total amount of nitrogen applied in spring in one, two or three applications had only a small overall effect on grain yield and little effect on grain quality. However, two-way and three-way split applications of nitrogen in which the main dressing was applied in early April gave significantly greater yields than a single application in either March or April.