The most reliable way to describe a barley variety’s yield is to look at official trials in which it is sown side by side with other varieties in the same field. Manava is fortunate in this respect: it was registered in the name of Granar Tarım in 2014 and, according to its variety profile, ranked first among two-row varieties in the registration trials with 771.7 kg per decare. It did not leave the trials after registration either. Turkey’s Variety Registration and Seed Certification Centre (TTSM) has been comparing new candidate varieties with Manava in its two-row barley registration trials in Thrace for years. In this article we look at what those trial reports say about Manava’s yield, its cold, lodging and disease observations, its grain quality and the fields it suits.
A benchmark variety in registration trials
In Turkey a new cereal variety has to be registered before it can be sold. Before registration, the candidate is grown for at least two years in value for cultivation and use trials in different provinces, and at every site it is grown next to “standard” varieties already sown in the region. The candidate’s yield, quality and disease status are judged against these standards; the standard variety is the bar the newcomer has to clear.
In TTSM’s registration reports for two-row barley in the Thrace region, Manava appears as a standard variety together with Harman, Bolayır and Sladoran. The trials were set up in Edirne, Keşan, Lüleburgaz, Tekirdağ and Kırklareli. These reports make it possible to see Manava over four separate growing seasons, side by side with 7 to 15 varieties sown under the same conditions.
Yield in the trials
According to the reports, Manava’s average yield was 805.7 kg per decare in the 2020-21 season, 812.4 kg in 2021-22, 894.1 kg in 2022-23 and 717.2 kg in 2023-24. In 2020-21 it ranked fifth among the 15 varieties in the trial and was the highest-yielding standard. In 2022-23 it ranked first, ahead of all eight varieties including the new candidates, and reached 1,027.2 kg per decare in Tekirdağ that year. In 2023-24 yields fell for all standard varieties; Manava stayed at the same level as the other standards, while some of the new candidates moved ahead.
These figures show something else as well: from one year to the next the same variety’s yield can shift by 150-200 kg per decare and the ranking changes. Choosing a variety on the result of a single year or a single field can therefore be misleading. Trial plots are also small, well-tended areas, and these trials were set up in Thrace, which receives more rain than Central Anatolia; in a dryland field the figures will be much lower, but the varieties’ positions relative to each other are still informative. The yield range in Manava’s variety profile is 350-400 kg per decare under rainfed conditions and 600-800 kg under irrigation. Where a field falls within this range depends on water, sowing date, seed and fertiliser; we discussed these four factors in detail in the article on Ramata barley yield.
Cold, lodging and disease observations
Alongside yield, the registration reports also record field observations. Across four years of observations, Manava’s cold damage scores stayed among the lowest of the standard varieties; in 2022, for example, Harman and Bolayır were scored between 2 and 5 while Manava’s scores were between 0 and 1. This matches the “good cold tolerance” in its variety profile and makes Manava a strong option where winters are harsh. For this tolerance to pay off, the plant has to enter winter already tillered; we explained why the sowing date matters for this in the article on winter barley sowing time.
Lodging varies from year to year. In 2021 and 2022 no lodging was recorded in Manava, while lodging was recorded in Harman in 2021. In 2024, however, all seven varieties in the Lüleburgaz and Tekirdağ trials lodged, Manava among them. Even a lodging-resistant variety can go down in a wet spring with too much nitrogen; applying nitrogen in measured, split doses reduces this risk.
For disease, Manava’s scores were below those of the standards in most years. In 2022 neither net blotch nor powdery mildew was recorded in Manava. In 2024 in Tekirdağ, barley leaf rust was scored at 90% in Sladoran and 80% in Bolayır, while Manava stayed at 10%. Manava’s variety profile also states a high tolerance to barley leaf stripe and to leaf spot diseases. The leaf stripe pathogen is seed-borne; a plant grown from infected seed brings the disease into the field itself. The first line of defence against this disease is therefore clean, treated seed. We explained why certified seed makes a difference here in the article on seed certification categories.
Grain quality: test weight and plumpness
A barley crop’s value is not decided only by the kilograms harvested per decare. In TTSM’s laboratory analyses, Manava’s test weight in the Thrace trials was measured between 71.3 and 76.8 kg per hectolitre. Test weight is the quality measure buyers look at most when purchasing barley; a higher test weight means more and plumper grain in the same volume.
The second key measure in two-row barley is the share of grain retained on the sieve. The grain is passed over 2.5 and 2.8 millimetre sieves; the higher the share left on top, the larger and more uniform the grain in the lot. Manava’s retained share was above 90% in five of eight measurements, reaching 96.3% in Lüleburgaz in 2022. It is not the same every year; in 2023 in Edirne it fell for all standard varieties, and markedly for Manava too.
The same analyses say something about seed as well. Manava’s thousand-grain weight in the trials ranged between 39 and 49 grams depending on year and site; in other words, different lots of the same variety can differ in grain size. The seeding rate per decare therefore starts from the recommendation in the variety profile, 25-30 kg under rainfed conditions and 22-25 kg under irrigation, and is adjusted to the thousand-grain weight of the lot. We explained the reasoning behind this calculation in the article on how many kilograms of seed per decare.
Which fields it suits
Manava is a winter, two-row feed barley; according to its variety profile it can be grown on bottomland, semi-bottomland and dryland, and its yield potential is especially high on dryland fields that hold the water received over winter. We discussed why two-row varieties stand out with large, plump grain where water is limited in the article two-row or six-row barley. In Granar’s experience, Manava is also a barley favoured by fish farmers.
Growers’ experience fits this picture. On a farmers’ forum, a grower who sowed Manava describes very good results on a deep, dark-soiled field after chickpeas and a yield of around 650 kg per decare on a poor, sandy field, adding that the variety responds well to generous fertilisation, showed no disease and tillered well. The same forum notes that the six-row Ramata is considered better suited to warm regions. In short, Manava, with its cold tolerance, is the variety for cool and cold regions; Ramata stands out in warm-region fields aiming for high yields under irrigation, and Sinanbey on fully dry land with no water at all.
In summary, Manava is a two-row barley that has remained a benchmark against which new varieties are compared in official trials since its registration, that scores well for cold in the trials and that comes out cleaner than the standards for disease in most years. The comparison table on the barley seed varieties page shows the profile values of our three barley varieties side by side. If you share your field’s region and water situation with us, our agricultural engineer will assess whether Manava suits your conditions: +90 506 101 01 50.