Drop winter barley and face rotation havoc, warn experts
Drop winter barley and face rotation havoc, warn experts
KEEP faith with winter barley or risk disrupting workloads and rotations. That is the advice to northern growers from Scottish Agronomy.
Many farms, especially in Aberdeenshire, are expected to drop the crop after a disastrous harvest and a huge slump in demand from local pig breeding enterprises. Up to 60% less winter barley could be sown than last autumn.
"There has been an obvious knee-jerk reaction, to this years 2t/acre yields and poor bushel weights, especially in the Borders," says Allen Scobie of the independent trials-based advisory firm.
"But a lot of our members believe this year was a one-off and have retained the crop, particularly those with experience of six-rows. Once you take it out of the rotation it plays havoc with a farms logistics."
Time is running out for sowing two-row varieties, admits colleague Andrew Gilchrist. "But growers can drill Manitou into late October."
Muscat has a better specific weight than Manitou, but is less suitable for Scottish growers striving to avoid lodging, he believes. "The key to the crop up here is keeping it on its feet."
Free-tillering Manitou needs a lower sowing rate than other six-rows. He advises 350-400 seeds/sq m. Similarly, split chlormequat as for a two-row can cause excessive tillering and low specific weights. "A single spray at the latest approved timing is best.
"And keep some of the main nitrogen dressing back for when the stems have extended. We reckon the best policy is to use 30% of the total in early spring, 50% at GS30 and 20% at flag leaf. If you overdo it at GS30 the crop tends to go down." *