A Buckinghamshire grower successfully finished winter barley harvest last week, with yields exceeding expectations after a difficult growing season.

Richard Heady, who has a mixed 400ha farm near Milton Keynes, achieved yields between 7-9t/ha from his 49ha of Bordeaux conventional barley, slightly better than his five-year average.

Richard said he was “pretty happy with the average-to-good yields for their soil” and although “yields were not exceptional, they were better than expected”.

However, crops experienced some lodging and head loss as a result of the unsettled weather leading up to harvest, but this was not enough to significantly affect yield at the beef, sheep and arable farm.

The crop was harvested using a 13-year-old New Holland CX8060, which Richard says continues to perform well. The crop will be stored and sold later in the year. 

See also: Spring barley beats winter wheat to harvest

Plough performs best

The barley performed best where the clay soils were ploughed and then drilled with a Kverneland tine seeder, as the water was able to drain away, explains Richard. “Areas which were min-tilled did not yield as well, because the crops sat wet over the winter,” he adds.

Drilled at the end of September, using home-saved seed, the crop had time to establish before the rain arrived last October.

The barley received 150kg N/ha and like Richard’s wheat, did not suffer particularly from disease. He puts this down to getting spray timings right and having a good working partnership with the farm’s agronomist.

Total wheat area is down by 80ha this year as a result of a wet autumn. In fact, Richard’s crop of Palladium winter wheat remains in the shed as he was unable to get the crop drilled last season. Varieties Extase and Illustrious are a couple of weeks off from harvest.

Ladum spring wheat and Isabel spring oats were drilled in place of the reduced winter wheat area and are looking promising, with the spring wheat now flowering. However, Richard is disappointed that even crops planted in May have blackgrass in them.

This drilling campaign, he intends to drill winter wheat earlier this autumn, at the end of September, rather than his usual early to mid-October drilling date to avoid the risk of getting caught by the weather again.