Farmers turning to spring barley this season will be better off focusing on high-yielding feed varieties rather than gambling on risky malting premiums.

Spring barley drillings are set to rise about 50% this season to almost 1m hectares, reflecting largely the sharp fall in winter wheat sowings due to last autumn’s wet weather.

Tony John, marketing and technical director at advisers ProCam, suggests that growers switching from winter wheat go for feed barley and focus on the first 10 weeks of the crop’s growth.

Growers new to the crop should not be tempted to go for a malting premium, as if they don’t make the grade they will be left with low yields and selling to the feed market.

He adds that experienced spring barley growers aiming at yields of 7.5t/ha have achieved similar gross margins to second winter wheats on land suited to the spring crop.

“Spring barley goes through the early growth stage very quickly and growth from tillering to stem extension is much faster than in many crops,” says Dr John.

The first six to 10 weeks after drilling is critical, so early nitrogen, good weed control and disease protection is key in the early life of the crop, he adds.

Spring barley crops can develop very quickly, with a new leaf emerging every three to five days, and therefore growers need to keep a careful watch on growing crops.

With the UK winter wheat area set to be down by about a quarter, most growers see spring barley as the obvious alternative and the area could jump to about 950,000ha from some 650,000ha in 2012.

Crop consultants ADAS reports that the first spring barley crops were drilled in the last week of February on traditional light barley lands in Norfolk, but points out that heavier soils will need to dry out before drilling.

ADAS says only 75% of planned winter wheat has been drilled this season and a further 10% drilled is of questionable viability. At least half of that may have to be redrilled with spring crops.

Growers can clearly save money on autumn herbicide treatment by growing spring barley rather than winter wheat, while the spring crop offers growers the opportunity to control weeds using stale seed-beds and spring cultivations.

As most of the new spring barley area will be grown on wheat land and since 80% of this has a severe blackgrass problem, early season weed control using a pre-emergence spray is vital.

Dr John advises growers to aim for drilling in late March to early April, with early nitrogen in the seed-bed likely to be key when soils are generally low in fertility due to heavy rainfall.

It is key to get the crop off to a good start so growers do not create knock-on problems for rotations in subsequent years.

“It’s going to be tough, but protecting the rotation has to be a key priority on many farms,” he says.

Dr John argues that early disease control is more critical in spring barley than in winter wheat, as sugars and protein are directly stored in the barley grain.

Wheat yield is more dependent on dry matter in the leaf and stem being converted into grain later in the growth cycle, so the wheat crop tends to respond better to late fungicide sprays.

“Spring barley will always respond well to fungicide treatments, so three sprays are well worth doing. Be prepared for a busy spray period in a rapidly growing crop,” he says.