Has anyone grown the new variety Colossus?Not a great fan of Barley myself,but should i consider it instead of a second wheat?I dont like the idea of having to buy a chemical package with the seed either.

yep 5Ha looks good at the moment still standing but very tall, some siberia has gone down in the next field. Its cost about £15 an acre more to grow thgat our siberia, so if barley trades at £60/tonne it need to do 1/4 tonne more than our siberia to pay for itself, i looks well capable of doing this if barley is worth more obviously needs to outyield it by less. Only the combine and weighbridge will tell though, if it does well we will be increasing the area grown next year. One thing to remember when your drilling it the seed looks absolutely apalling with it being a hybrid, but this is not an indication of what it wil produce !!!!!!!! James

Grew it last year with some success in what would have been the second wheat slot. Drilled into good conditions late (end Oct) at the recommended low seedrate. Never thought it would produce the goods here at only 120 kg / ha but my goodness was it vigorous. We overfed it and it lodged badly, but turned in 9.2t / ha.

Grew 9.5ha last year alongside Pict after spring barley. Drilled at 200 seeds in my opinion up here (Scotland) too low need 250-300 (considerably more cost). Takes fairly robust use of growth regs and the chemical package comes with it. Again in my opinion the package is not perfect and ours died off with ramularia (as most barleys do around here). I think syngenta have changed the package for this year. On yield it left 3.4t/acre where the pict left 3.6t/ acre wieghed on the forklift weigh log. Bushel weight was 3kg below the pict as well. We never grew it this year due to the disappointment with it. However crops around here look better this year and some have even remained standing. Again in my opinion there are other 6 row varieties out there, Sequel,Pict etc. On the positive side the chemical package is competitively priced and if you choose not to use all the chemical it can be used elsewhere. It is simply a case of saying can I market it, for the same gross margin or more than 2nd wheat. You don't sound too sold on the idea anyway. The answer maybe to try a field of ordinary 6 row and see how you get on. My 2p