Up seed rate for quick start to bumper barley crop
Bump up the seed rate and stay alert for the crop’s early rapid growth – these are two of the key messages for new spring barley growers forced to switch from winter wheat.
Most new growers will be growing barley only because they failed to drill winter wheat in wet autumn weather, so a great deal of patience with seed-beds and sowing will be needed.
With spring barley seed virtually sold out, new growers are advised to aim for high yields of feed barley, irrespective of whether they have feed or malting varieties.
As malting premiums are currently about a slim £15/t, it is a risky strategy for newcomers to bet on getting a premium which could get even slimmer after a big barley crop.
The spring barley area is set rise to nearly 1m hectares this season, up from 618,000ha in 2012, due largely to the fall in winter wheat drillings by 25%, a figure that could rise as poor wheat crops are ripped up.
After many wheat growers missed out due to heavy autumn rains, agronomists advise first-time spring barley growers to try to avoid the temptation to drill far too early.
“A great deal of patience will be needed to wait for warm and dry conditions. The key is to drill in the right conditions rather than to drill in March,” said Mark Hemmant, technical manager at adviser Agrovista.
Many barley crops will be going in on heavy wheat soils rather than the more traditional medium to light lands and these will take longer to dry out after a wet winter.
“Many heavy soils are still wet underneath and soils are cold, so growers could see variable success with early drilling,” says David Leaper, arable technical manager at adviser Openfield.
He points out that soil temperature is only about 3-4C at the moment, whereas temperatures need to be about 6C for spring barley seed to germinate and grow strongly.
Mr Hemmant advises growers to aim at a higher seed rate for spring barley of about 425 seeds/sq metre – this may have to go even higher with later drillings.
Christine Lilly, technical manager at adviser Frontier, says higher seed rates will be needed for later drillings, as spring barley does not have the tillering ability of winter wheat.
“Once the crop is drilled, growth happens very quickly, so new growers to the crop need to be alert,” she says.
If the choice is made early to go for feed barley, higher rates of nitrogen fertiliser can be used to boost yield, with seed-bed nitrogen essential and a second split advised when the rows of emerging barley plants can be clearly seen.
Nitrogen application on malting barley is seen by many as an art, with skill needed to give plants just enough to drive yield, but not enough to push the grain nitrogen content above that demanded by maltsters.
Many advise that it is not worth chasing these thin pickings without malting barley growing experience and the right type of lighter land.
As this season’s spring barley may be going into land that had been destined for winter wheat, these spring growers may well be faced with blackgrass weed problems.
In such situations, advisers suggest either a pre-emergence residual approach using tri-allate, pendimethalin or chlorotoluron mixes, or to go for a post-emergence spraying strategy.
Disease watch should focus on mildew, brown rust and rhynchosporium, with ramularia a concern later in the growing season
“A two-spray policy should be adequate, unless it is a very early drilled crop,” says Ms Lilly.
She suggests a triazole-SDHI approach at the T1 fungicide timing and also at the later T2 timing, but cautions that not all SDHIs are approved by maltsters.
Mr Hemmant suggests a triazole-strobilurin product, such as Fandango (prothioconazole+fluoxastrobin), at T1 and then a triazole-SDHI approach at T2, adding a protectant product such as chlorothalonil or folpet where tank mixes allow.
Rotation will be a key factor this season, so good management will be needed to aim for an early harvest and so allow a return to autumn-sown crops after the summer harvest.
