Richard Solari (left) came close to breaking the UK barley yield record

Shropshire grower Richard Solari has harvested a bumper winter barley crop within a whisker of the UK yield record in his first field which was moved to a long-term nine-year rotation.

A crop of Cassia winter barley on his light land farm turned in a yield of 11.83t/ha in a field of just over 10ha and when corrected to 15% grain moisture.

“This is the first field we have moved to a nine-year rotation which includes two years of grass and also peas in the rotation,” Mr Solari tells Farmers Weekly.

See also: Harvest 2015: Winter barley yields show 18% boost this harvest

The new rotation reflects his brother’s Mike farming practice in New Zealand, which led him to achieving a 15.6t/ha world record winter wheat yield in 2010.

Richard Solari says the field had no different treatments from others on the farm, but gained as the crop was the seventh in the rotation following two years of grass, potatoes, winter wheat, peas and winter wheat.

The yield was close to the UK record of 12.2t/ha grown by Gordon Rennie in 1989, which was the world record for 26 years until it was beaten by New Zealander Warren Darling earlier this year with a crop yielding 13.8t/ha.

Mr Solari farms 500ha of largely arable land at Heath House Farm, Beckbury, near Shifnal, some 10 miles west of Wolverhampton.