Hybrid barleys have performed extremely well at Maitlands Farm, Lenham, Kent, where Robert Boyd has cut 20ha of winter barley so far.

“We split one field in two and grew Volume on one side and Galation on the other,” said Mr Boyd.

Between them, the two varieties averaged 10.36t/ha over a weighbridge. “The Volume yielded 0.66t/ha better, but looking at yield maps that side of the field has historically always done better, so it may not be simply down to variety.”

Mr Boyd used contractor John Boyd Farms Ltd for all his fieldwork, and operations manager Neil Harper managed to cut the 20ha in just four hours with his Claas 780 combine, linked to the Gatekeeper precision cropping tool. 

See also: Upload your harvest photos to our Harvest Highlights gallery.

Bushelweights were good, with the Volume at 65-66kg/hl and the Galation slightly better – albeit tested on farm not in a laboratory, he said.

“They both have very nice samples – often you look at six-row samples and wonder what on earth you’re going to do with them, but these looked almost like two-rows.”

However, the crop wasn’t cheap to grow, as the seed was more expensive than conventional varieties, and had a full fungicide and herbicide programme.

“We used Liberator and Bullion with Avadex Excel at pre-emergence and had no blackgrass whatsoever. Then we applied fungicides in late March, mid-April and mid-May,” said Mr Boyd.

He also applied 215kg/ha of nitrogen fertiliser and 65kg/ha of sulphur. “We were really going for yield.”

That said, he used a similar level of inputs on a 12ha field of Cassia, which – despite the poorer ground – was also looking well. “It will be interesting to compare yields and gross margins,” said Mr Boyd.

“But the hybrids were easy to grow and I’ll definitely grow them again. With a similar gross margin to wheat, and an early harvest, it’s got to be worthwhile.”

However, this year he planned to move the hybrids from his best field to some slightly poorer land. “We’ll also lower the seed rate a bit, as it was plenty thick enough.”

See also: All the news, videos and harvest resources on our Harvest Highlights page.