  We present a quantum simulation strategy for a (1+1)D SU(2) non-abelian
lattice gauge theory, a hardcore-gluon Hamiltonian Yang-Mills, tailored to a
six-level trapped-ion qudit quantum processor, as recently experimentally
realized. We employ a qudit encoding fulfilling gauge invariance, an SU(2)
Gauss' law. We discuss the experimental feasibility of generalized
M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen gates used to efficiently simulate the dynamics. We
illustrate how a shallow circuit with these resources is sufficient to
implement scalable digital quantum simulation of the model. We also numerically
show that this model, albeit simple, can dynamically manifest
physically-relevant properties specific to non-abelian field theories, such as
baryon excitations.
