Causes of brackling

[DeeGee]

Lost thousands of Spring barley heads this year due to brackling. Most losses seem due to heads hanging too low for the cutterbar, and with some having shed. Barley has also seemingly 'shrunk' with straw length being very short: maybe growth regs have played a part in this?

Variety is Kelim but I don't necessarily think the variety is to blame as we had something similar with Cassia winter barley. Added up together I would imagine losses must be massive. Crops are yielding about 2.5t/acre in the shed, but I would guesstimate it would be at least three tonnes if all those heads had been combined rather than left on the floor.

My own suspicion is that it could be glyphosate applied too soon, thus effectively killing the barley plants and causing them to go brittle and then sort of collapse and brackle. Maybe in future we need to just spray headlands for greens etc. and stop doing fields as a routine? Certainly something needs to change to prevent these losses next year.

What ideas or opinions do others have on this issue?

 

[warksfarmer]

Lost thousands of Spring barley heads this year due to brackling. Most losses seem due to heads hanging too low for the cutterbar, and with some having shed. Barley has also seemingly 'shrunk' with straw length being very short: maybe growth regs have played a part in this?

Variety is Kelim but I don't necessarily think the variety is to blame as we had something similar with Cassia winter barley. Added up together I would imagine losses must be massive. Crops are yielding about 2.5t/acre in the shed, but I would guesstimate it would be at least three tonnes if all those heads had been combined rather than left on the floor.

My own suspicion is that it could be glyphosate applied too soon, thus effectively killing the barley plants and causing them to go brittle and then sort of collapse and brackle. Maybe in future we need to just spray headlands for greens etc. and stop doing fields as a routine? Certainly something needs to change to prevent these losses next year.

What ideas or opinions do others have on this issue?

It's not dessication as we've lost the same number of heads where we didn't dessicate. The difference though was 3% moisture increase and wet straw compared to what was dessicated.

Ours brackled after high winds about 4 weeks before it was harvested. Nitrogen was 120kg/ha applied but maybe we should of accounted for soil N? Which is normally about 35 here so maybe it was that? Big heads thing straw?

 

[Feldspar]

We did one area with a bit of Terpal equivalent and that made a very noticeable difference in Retriever winter barley. Neighbour did the same in spring barley and the same observation. Was aiming to do Terpal over the whole winter barley area but held off due to the dry weather at the time. Next year assuming lack of drought conditions will aim to do the whole lot.

 

[DeeGee]

So what do you think causes short straw and straw shrinkage in the weeks prior to harvest?

 

[Chae1]

It's the weather that's caused it.

 

[wasted years]

So what do you think causes short straw and straw shrinkage in the weeks prior to harvest?

Spraying it off for sure, my WB was 3 weeks sprayed and fell to bits, SB not sprayed and coming off really clean with lots more straw.
We have historically had bad twitch but now the fields are cleaner we will post harvest spray not pre.

 

[Tractor Boy]

I didn't dessicate my Spring barley. It barely did 5t/ha with I reckon over 1-1.5t/ha on the floor, cut off! It had a strong PGR mix at GS31 but nothing later on. Brackled badly about 2-3 weeks before it was fit to cut.

 

[Happy]

It's the weather that's caused it.

Would agree. All varieties seem to be effected, even those with ratings of 8 and 9 for it.

All mine sprayed off for a fortnight but only one field cut so far that was really bad. Field was all standing yet other fields with lodged bits here & there had no brackling
Just been a very strange growing season. Barley yielding surprisingly well given the drought in April/May.

 

[Simon Chiles]

I didn't dessicate my Spring barley. It barely did 5t/ha with I reckon over 1-1.5t/ha on the floor, cut off! It had a strong PGR mix at GS31 but nothing later on. Brackled badly about 2-3 weeks before it was fit to cut.

If it's any consolation I've cut my neighbours Spring Barley and it was exactly the same as yours. I hate combining when it's like that and there's nothing you can do to get the heads off the ground.

 

[Flat 10]

I didn't dessicate my Spring barley. It barely did 5t/ha with I reckon over 1-1.5t/ha on the floor, cut off! It had a strong PGR mix at GS31 but nothing later on. Brackled badly about 2-3 weeks before it was fit to cut.

Same here but no PGR applied.

 

[ollie989898]

It is very difficult for an agronomist to chuck a lot of PGR on a crop that looks openly unhappy because of the dry conditions. All the chemical manufacturers print warnings on their products about not using them on stressed crops. They can hurt crops if you are not careful and I can appreciate that this spring I bet a lot of people were in two minds about PGR work on spring barley.

The dessication job I try to avoid doing if I am honest.

I just think we have had so much compensatory growth and such poor weather, coupled with 'over fit' crops that it was inevitable stuff started going down. I have seen a bit more wheat and usual about the place has gone down, too.

 

[limestone brash]

Only way to prevent losses due to brackling in barley is to cut it just before it's ready
- it only needs a heavy shower when it's ripe for heads to go down

 

[Tractor Boy]

Only way to prevent losses due to brackling in barley is to cut it just before it's ready
- it only needs a heavy shower when it's ripe for heads to go down

Mine was green when it brackled this year!

 

[DeeGee]

Thanks for some interesting replies. Seems like this unusual season is a real contributory factor to brackling, and not just here that has problems.

Cannot decide if glyphosate is also partly to blame.
I think I will use much less of it next year, as our crops are generally clean anyway, and we tend to use it to even up ripening of greens at tramlines etc.
Maybe will just use it on headlands next season where there is some unripened corn and a little weed ingress from the boundary.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Thanks for some interesting replies. Seems like this unusual season is a real contributory factor to brackling, and not just here that has problems.

Cannot decide if glyphosate is also partly to blame.
I think I will use much less of it next year, as our crops are generally clean anyway, and we tend to use it to even up ripening of greens at tramlines etc.
Maybe will just use it on headlands next season where there is some unripened corn and a little weed ingress from the boundary.

I can't see how glyphosate is to blame. It happens earlier in the season than that. I'd say its a combination of weather, poor rooting, no pgr, too much N, the weather, variety, tillage technique and the weather. Next year will be different so don't look too much into this year.

 

[Barry]

I accept in very bad years even the varieties with very high ratings will be affected to some degree, but there are clear varietal differences in the trials we see.

This is from the AHDB website. Some sites had little problem and one averaged 80%+. So even the best varieties still have 20% Brackling.

Note: This is just one year.

 

[Brisel]

Here are my theories on why there was so much brackling this year;

• Weather - heavy rain storms as it approached maturity that beat it down to the ground
  
• Weather - lush compensatory growth when the drought broke in May with weaker straw. The late uptake of nitrogen won't have helped but until I see post harvest grain Ns I can't really comment further.
• Weather - drought early on limiting uptake of essential nutrients when there was insufficient water to allow the roots to do so even if they were available. Potassium is normally associated with cell wall strength but there's a whole suite of nutrients needed to build a strong plant.
• 
  
• PGRs? No. There seems to be little correlation between PGR use and brackling.
• Row spacing or seed rate? No. It all went down regardless.
• Pre harvest desiccation with glyphosate? No. Most crops around here aren't sprayed off. It can affect germination so is risky if done early.

 

[Brisel]

I thought I'd bump this thread as I'm getting bad ear losses in spring barley. Again. I've boosted soil K indices and used foliar K at T2. The Planet wasn't particularly tall either but it still brackles 10 minutes after it is fully ripe. Any fresh theories on why this happens???

 

[Pebd99]

I thought I'd bump this thread as I'm getting bad ear losses in spring barley. Again. I've boosted soil K indices and used foliar K at T2. The Planet wasn't particularly tall either but it still brackles 10 minutes after it is fully ripe. Any fresh theories on why this happens???

Have the same issues with concerto. Good levels of p and k. Agronomist said to use priaxor fungicide saying there was something in it that I can’t remember to stop brackling. It’s better looking than previous years but not that great either.

 

[Brisel]

Priaxor contains the same SDHI as Adexar, which is supposed to reduce brackling. I've used Adexar as a T2 for a few years & it has made fudge all difference. I doubt it's the strob in Priaxor helping.