Continuous barley; to bale or not to bale?

Simon C

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex Coast
I am a huge advocate of Winter Barley and have recently become even more so.
It seems to like being Direct drilled,
Can be drilled early, no need to delay for BG reasons.
Hybrids and certain conventional varieties such as Sensation definitely have a Blackgrass suppression advantage over wheat,
It use less ferts and fungicides,
Urea will go on it before April,
Consistently out yields 2nd wheats, which is also where BG is worst in the rotation.
Grown as a first white-straw crop can stand prolonged bad weather more and will often out yield a 1st wheat!

In fact my 1st wheats are supposedly coming on predominantly our worst BG land next year and will be planted with Winter Barley for 2 years on the trot and no 1st wheat!

Harvest is early with plenty more time to bale and clear the straw in usually a drier July than August.
Cut a higher stubble or in my case, use a Dual Stream header.
Swap the straw for muck.

……….But please don’t tell everyone or you’ll flood the market!
I have been amazed to not find any blackgrass in my Sensation barley this year. I hadn't realised it could have a better allelopathic effect than other varieties.
 

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