Grande, a new feed barley, released by the University of California, and ARS, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture offers a yield advantage over the varieties Atlas and Winter Tennessee. In 16 years of testing at Davis and 5 years of tests at many other locations in California, the yield advantage over these two established varieties ranged from an average of 9% over Atlas to 21% over Winter Tennessee. The variety has been equal to Arivat in an average of 57 yield comparisons, as shown in table 2. Grande is recommended primarily for use in the upper Sacramento Valley and is suitable only for feed grain use. It seems especially well adapted for early sowing on clay textured soils where winter rainfall or supplemental spring irrigation is adequate for medium-late varieties. Because of its lateness, it may be useful in areas where spring frosts frequently cause damage to early heading varieties. It has good tolerance to net blotch, scald, mildew, yellow dwarf, lodging and shattering as compared with currently available commercial varieties in its area of adaptation. Foundation seed should be available to qualified growers in the autumn of 1964. Certified seed should be available after the 1965 harvest. Non-certified common seed of Grande (formerly CAS 1358) is presently available from Sacramento Valley sources.

This is a progress report of cooperative investigations of the Crops Research Division, ARS, USDA, and the Department of Agronomy, University of California, Davis.