Grain yield and water use: relative performance of winter vs. spring cereals in east-central Saskatchewan.

Changing economic conditions have provided strong incentives for grain producers to choose the most profitable cereal crops to grow. We determined grain yield and water use efficiency (WUE) for winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), fall rye (Secale cereale L.), hard red spring (HRS) wheat, Canada prairie spring (CPS) wheat, amber durum (Triticum turgidum L.), and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) under no-till systems. Over 60% of yield variability existing among site/years was due to water use or evapotranspiration (ET) in semiarid east-central Saskatchewan. Mean grain yield increased by 16.3 kg ha−1 with each millimetre of increase in ET. Barley produced 3748 kg ha−1 of grain on average, or 21% higher than winter wheat, 27% higher than CPS wheat, 39% higher than rye or durum, and 50% higher than HRS wheat. Average yields differed less than 5% between winter wheat and CPS wheat, but in water-stressed environments, CPS wheat had 19 to 34% lower grain yield than winter wheat. In one of the five cases where winter...