Cranborne Farms in east Dorset grew a malting winter barley crop for just £65.36/t variable costs last season, some £10.85/t lower than the UK average (Yagro UK).

Farm manager Dan Moore puts the achievement down to a “mosaic” approach to field blocks, targeted nutrition and strong data analysis.

His ultimate aim is to reduce artificial inputs and create as much habitat as possible on the farm – all while maintaining production.

See also: Growers have new fungicide to protect barley this spring – Farmers Weekly

Mosaic cropping

The mosaic cropping design at the 1,200ha farm (part of Gascoyne Estates) means that no two adjacent fields are planted to the same crop.

This not only drives biodiversity and helps beneficial insects, but acts as a natural protection barrier by preventing the spread of pests, weeds and disease.

However, with an average field size of 12ha, and a rotation encompassing wheat, barley, oats, peas and beans, Dan admits this can be a tricky act to balance.

“Working out a rotation and managing workload can be a challenge.

“You don’t want to be driving miles and miles between land blocks to apply crop inputs, but this approach has proven time and time again to be beneficial for wildlife, biodiversity and crop health,” he says.

Every field on the farm also features flower-rich margins, winter bird food or beetle banks under the Countryside Stewardship scheme to boost biodiversity and beneficial insect species further.

As a result, insecticides have not been used on the farm for six years.

Now, Dan’s attention has turned to reducing nitrogen and fungicides, which he hopes will follow a similar trajectory.

“Importantly, everything must be data driven.

“We’re always running trials in a measured way, seeing if we can reduce inputs to build soil health.

“That’s more important to us than cutting costs.

“Though, of course, optimising costs and achieving healthy yields help with margins.”

Winter barley costings

Winter barley destined for malting receives a total of 90kg N/ha. This came to a cost of £100.77/ha last season.

Rates have been cut from 120kg N/ha and are applied in a 50-50 split during early-February and mid-March.

“We’re focused on treating each field individually, in terms of soil and crop health.

“We’ve reduced N use and added humic and fulvic acids as a carbon source with foliar applications, to aid N uptake.”

Dan specifically grows 120ha of winter barley all to the variety: Maris Otter, which dates back to 1965. This yielded 5.15t/ha for harvest 2024.

Winter barley follows spring barley in the rotation, as wheat admix is a big no-no for the end market.

“Maris Otter is a 60-year-old variety, so there’s a lot of heritage there.

“It’s very much grown for its malting and brewing properties rather than its agronomy traits.

“So, we know we have to look after it.

“We target malting spec every time, so push N rates fairly low.

“We’re pushing for quality, not yield,” he says.

“Treating fields on an individual basis rather than blocking crops takes more management, but it pays dividends in the long run,” says Dan.

Tissue testing and sap analysis helps to inform crop nutrition requirements, with £10.03/ha spent on trace elements last season.

By improving plant health, Dan aimed to drop fungicide use, but he finds two fungicides on the Maris Otter is still beneficial, costing £64.84/ha.

One input that did rise was plant growth regulators (PGRs) – up to £6.06/ha compared with £2.84/ha for harvest 2023.

The winter barley crop was planted during the first week of October, with a Horizon DSX disc drill.

This was a week later than usual due to weather conditions, but the crop came out of winter particularly strong with a good number of tillers.

“Because we need to reach malting quality, we cannot afford lodged crops.

“We also had almost double rainfall for the 2023 calendar year, so we had to be flexible and make the call to apply a PGR,” says Dan.

Soil N testing

Residual soil N tests are regularly taken to target N use, with the results as follows:

• After herbal leys (three-year ley) 90kg N/ha
• After spring peas 85kg N/ha
• After cover crops 65kg N/ha
• After spring oats 40kg N/ha

Dan owes a lot of the farm’s soil health improvements to a cattle partnership with a local dairy farm, which forms a big part of the system.

A total of 120ha of herbal leys are fully integrated into the arable rotation, supplying grazing for 600 dairy beef stock from six weeks old.

Cattle are kept outside year-round and move onto grazing cover crops at one year of age.

Aiming to farm as regeneratively as possible, livestock play an important role in the system.

The 50/50 partnership, which sees Cranborne supply the land and the local dairy farm supply the calves with a split of the profits, works well for the farm.