Does barley still stack up?

robbie · Sep 10, 2020

Frodo said:
At £44t discount surely every nutritionist in the land is changing ration to max out barley, or is it not that simple?

Everyone seems to be having trouble with pigs sh!ting loose and being very wet at the moment and that's being put down to the fresh barley effect which happens every year but this year it's being exaggerate by all the mills using as much barley in the ration as they possibly can.

Renaultman · Sep 10, 2020

Clive said:
I'm planting barley for the first time in a decade ............................ don't follow the herd!

Absolutely

Bury the Trash · Sep 10, 2020

S B does, winter barley is unreliable and higher cost. been like that for many yrs still no different these days imo.

grown for feed and straw mind...

lloyd · Sep 10, 2020

I'm growing some Valerie WB and quite looking forward to it.
The straw will be worth alot of money counting the number of
enquiries I've had last few days.

ajd132 · Sep 10, 2020

lloyd said:
I'm growing some Valerie WB and quite looking forward to it.
The straw will be worth alot of money counting the number of
enquiries I've had last few days.

Wouldn’t count on straw to make you rich next year. Everyone piling into early drilled winter wheat and barley wanting to maximise returns to make up for this year. Everyone dropping straw I bet. Get a reasonable growing season and any kind of straw deficit will be gone by 3rd week of July.

quattro · Sep 10, 2020

Averaged 4ton per acre over 200acres so cant complain, early up here Too

ollie989898 · Sep 10, 2020

I've never been convinced of the economics of winter barley in all honesty. It gives you an earlier entry to another crop, I agree. But there are fewer grassweed options, it normally trades at a discount to wheat and if you aren't careful you can end up spending wheat money on agchems for it. I'm in favour of it if it is grown cheaply. This means being careful with PGR and fungicide spend. The cost of axial alone would make me spit and all it does it wild oats.

lloyd · Sep 10, 2020

ajd132 said:
Wouldn’t count on straw to make you rich next year. Everyone piling into early drilled winter wheat and barley wanting to maximise returns to make up for this year. Everyone dropping straw I bet. Get a reasonable growing season and any kind of straw deficit will be gone by 3rd week of July.

Your not in a high demand area I can sell straw every year.

Hindsight · Sep 10, 2020

ajd132 said:
If all the big arable boys got back into livestock with a proper ‘golden hoof’ regenerative system then any kind of marginal livestock/hill farm will be a nature reserve.
I would happily joint venture/financially back a displaced hill farmer to move down here and integrate livestock into the arable rotation.

You have located the Defra future policy document then?

Pan mixer · Sep 10, 2020

When I was at College our Management lecturer - one John Nix, used to say the best rotation was; Barley, Barley, Barley, Barbados.

I think that farms were more profitable then.

I grow Spring barley because I want some barley in the barn for the pigs and I want to control blackgrass. 3 tons of Spring barley beats 4 tonnes of wheat in terms of profitability more years than it doesn't particularly if cash flow is tight.

JCfarmer · Sep 10, 2020

Pan mixer said:
When I was at College our Management lecturer - one John Nix, used to say the best rotation was; Barley, Barley, Barley, Barbados.

I think that farms were more profitable then.

I grow Spring barley because I want some barley in the barn for the pigs and I want to control blackgrass. 3 tons of Spring barley beats 4 tonnes of wheat in terms of profitability more years than it doesn't particularly if cash flow is tight.

When I was at college I soon found out 2 lecturers were failed farmers, very good at teaching you what to do on paper!

Good to have a few beers with though!
And the others, well not farmers but ok.

JCfarmer · Sep 10, 2020

Loads of Spring barley going in next year after a good dressing of muck.

And definitely no winter barley!

ajd132 · Sep 11, 2020

Hindsight said:
You have located the Defra future policy document then?

It was just a comment if like Neilo said we should all be going back to proper farming.
Personally I cannot see subsidy reliant hill farming carryIng on the way it is, it will all end up environmental stuff.
my point was that if there was a business car emerging for re/introduction of livestock farming onto arable farms in the east, I would want to work with someone who knows what they are doing. Which could be someone young from a marginal upland farm who doesn’t want to be a park keeper.
Sorry if it upsets you but I cannot see the current model of upland farm surviving post subsidy in its current form

Hfd Cattle · Sep 11, 2020

SB for me . It means I've got the ground over winter to do something with and it's cheaper to grow than WB . SB at 2.5/3 tonne to the acre is a good return . Most of mine is fed in house so the selling value isn't really an issue .

DrWazzock · Sep 11, 2020

It will be mostly spring barley here next year. We will try 50 acres of winter wheat on the better stronger land but all of the light land will be spring barley. It’s the only crop that performs consistently on light land and achieves a decent margin and a saleable sample.
There isn’t really enough affordable chemistry left to keep spring beans clean and they are vulnerable to a dry spring here. Haven’t made my mind up on beet. Very tricky to grow now.

texas pete · Sep 11, 2020

DrWazzock said:
It will be mostly spring barley here next year. We will try 50 acres of winter wheat on the better stronger land but all of the light land will be spring barley. It’s the only crop that performs consistently on light land and achieves a decent margin and a saleable sample.
There isn’t really enough affordable chemistry left to keep spring beans clean and they are vulnerable to a dry spring here. Haven’t made my mind up on beet. Very tricky to grow now.

You're already getting tempted away from your new plan...don't do it...

DRC · Sep 11, 2020

DrWazzock said:
It will be mostly spring barley here next year. We will try 50 acres of winter wheat on the better stronger land but all of the light land will be spring barley. It’s the only crop that performs consistently on light land and achieves a decent margin and a saleable sample.
There isn’t really enough affordable chemistry left to keep spring beans clean and they are vulnerable to a dry spring here. Haven’t made my mind up on beet. Very tricky to grow now.

I thought you were going all spring cropping

robs1 · Sep 11, 2020

Went back to winter barley this time as we have a good market for the straw it gives a better margin than the sb

glasshouse · Sep 11, 2020

JCfarmer said:
When I was at college I soon found out 2 lecturers were failed farmers, very good at teaching you what to do on paper!
Good to have a few beers with though!
And the others, well not farmers but ok.

Thats an ignorant post
How do you know they “failed”?

Hindsight · Sep 11, 2020

ajd132 said:
It was just a comment if like Neilo said we should all be going back to proper farming.
Personally I cannot see subsidy reliant hill farming carryIng on the way it is, it will all end up environmental stuff.
my point was that if there was a business car emerging for re/introduction of livestock farming onto arable farms in the east, I would want to work with someone who knows what they are doing. Which could be someone young from a marginal upland farm who doesn’t want to be a park keeper.
Sorry if it upsets you but I cannot see the current model of upland farm surviving post subsidy in its current form

No doesn't upset me. My post was an idle comment not meant or intended to provoke a response! I await with interest government policy for both lowland and upland. As I come from the Fens anything above sea level is upland to me.

Does barley still stack up?

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

Share this page