Study on postanthesis dry matter remobilisation was conducted in glasshouse experiment with 2 rates of N (equivalent to 50 and 100 KgN/ha) with and without postanthesis water stress. Under well watered conditions, the differences in yield responsiveness to N between cultivars was positively correlated with differences in shoot dry matter remobilisation. However, there was no correlation under postanthesis stress. Despite the significant differences between cultivars in remobilisation of dry matter, there was not strongly associated with the response in grain yield. Although this study showed there is variation in kernel weight and kernel weight stability between cultivars. this was not related to the ability to remobilise dry matter from the vegetative plant. The results from this experiment showed that Skiff had the highest response to N at water stress, Weeah showed no response to N. Weeah had low shoot dry matter remobilisation during grain filling, while shoot dry matter remobilisation in Stirling was high compared with the other cultivars. Skiff, which had a variable kernel weight also had a large response in the amount of dry matter remobilised while Weeah remobilised little dry matter and a less variable kernel weight. Although when postanthesis water stress was low there was large yield response to N but postanthesis water stress reduced the amount of final grain N. Therefore the postanthesis water stress less affect grain quality and grain size of barley cultivars in respect of the amount of grain dry matter.
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