Maris Otter

[Brisel]

Do you mind me asking which store it’s gone to?

Yours, maybe? Robin Appel take a lot into Ridgeway. I think Southernfarmer has serious connections with Appel

 

[T Hectares]

Yours, maybe? Robin Appel take a lot into Ridgeway. I think Southernfarmer has serious connections with Appel

All bar one of his posts in the last year and a half are on Maris Otter, the other is promoting independent grain merchants ?

 

[Brisel]

All bar one of his posts in the last year and a half are on Maris Otter, the other is promoting independent grain merchants ?

Yep. A PM conversation with them did little to convince me otherwise too. I don't mind merchants being in here (we have a few in TFF), but I do mind people being somewhat economical with the truth.

 

[fred.950]

Yours, maybe? Robin Appel take a lot into Ridgeway. I think Southernfarmer has serious connections with Appel

That’s why I asked because we’ve only had a couple of loads other than ours. We only grow it because it would be rude not to

 

[Brisel]

That’s why I asked because we’ve only had a couple of loads other than ours. We only grow it because it would be rude not to

Do you still store for RA? PM if you prefer.

 

[robbie]

Might as well grow a malting variety even on heavy land. Just dump all the fert in the seedbed. If it's going to a central store then the odd load may pass and no hassle from mills

Spring yes, but were talking craft winter malting barley.

 

[ajd132]

Other than perhaps 20 or 30 units less N how is malting any cheaper to grow than feed??? They both need 2 fungicides and some pgr. But the malting has a lower potential and is a fiver a ton premium really going to make up for the yield especially when you add in the fact that your dealing with maltsters who are the biggest rogues going. A redirection charge for a rejected load would make I less per ton than feed.

@ajd123 I'm curious as to why on heavy clay would you grow malting barley surely feed would be a better prospect. Heavy land to me always means high N in barley.

I’m comparing to hybrid feed which is expensive to grow and flatters to deceive. We are surrounded by malsters here and have the storage to not even think about random deductions. It’s low yielding years like this where growing quality really pays in all crops.

 

[homefarm]

We grew otter for Isaac Poad till they went into administration, that was a real risk l had not considered.

Robin Appel came to the rescue and took over the contracts and helped the end user and growers out of a bad situation.
So that is a thumbs up for Robin Appel from me.

We have grown Otter since 2012 and think over the years it has compared well with other options for winter barley but perhaps it should be compared to a second wheat or spring barley.
Compared to second wheat it fails especially while this high discount on barley to wheat which seeems to be the norm now.
Spring malting barley could also bettter but as always perhaps the more different options the better.

How much is an early start to harvest worth?

 

[T Hectares]

We grew otter for Isaac Poad till they went into administration, that was a real risk l had not considered.

Robin Appel came to the rescue and took over the contracts and helped the end user and growers out of a bad situation.
So that is a thumbs up for Robin Appel from me.

We have grown Otter since 2012 and think over the years it has compared well with other options for winter barley but perhaps it should be compared to a second wheat or spring barley.
Compared to second wheat it fails especially while this high discount on barley to wheat which seeems to be the norm now.
Spring malting barley could also bettter but as always perhaps the more different options the better.

How much is an early start to harvest worth?

I deal with RA on Spring barley and some Wheat and they are a good company.
It's just when a poster on here only pops up on a single subject it has a tritonesque air to it ?

 

[Flat 10]

I’m comparing to hybrid feed which is expensive to grow and flatters to deceive. We are surrounded by malsters here and have the storage to not even think about random deductions. It’s low yielding years like this where growing quality really pays in all crops.

Not in my experience. Respect for telling the truth but I thought your barley yields sounded pretty low to me, on your land I would hope I could bash out 9t hyvido year in year out. I doubt I spend any more on my hybrid than you do on the craft. Not everyone is the same, plenty of us can make it work ie your way isn't always the only way.....

 

[ajd132]

Not in my experience. Respect for telling the truth but I thought your barley yields sounded pretty low to me, on your land I would hope I could bash out 9t hyvido year in year out. I doubt I spend any more on my hybrid than you do on the craft. Not everyone is the same, plenty of us can make it work ie your way isn't always the only way.....

I agree, last year we did 8.3 on one farm and 9.3 on another. Everything else yielded ludicrously well. Spring barley did 8.5, spring oats 7.8 and wheat did 11. I don’t know why the hybrid was so poor in comparison. I took a lot of advice from people who are very successful at growing it but it just didn’t seem to work very well. My craft got 100kgs N and 2 fungicide also much cheaper seed costs and it’s sold really well. From what I gather barleys in the area are very poor. I would rather have 6t of malting barley than 6t of hybrid feed.

 

[Flat 10]

I agree, last year we did 8.3 on one farm and 9.3 on another. Everything else yielded ludicrously well. Spring barley did 8.5, spring oats 7.8 and wheat did 11. I don’t know why the hybrid was so poor in comparison. I took a lot of advice from people who are very successful at growing it but it just didn’t seem to work very well. My craft got 100kgs N and 2 fungicide also much cheaper seed costs and it’s sold really well. From what I gather barleys in the area are very poor. I would rather have 6t of malting barley than 6t of hybrid feed.

Agree on last bit.

 

[ajd132]

Agree on last bit.

I also found the low seed rates worse for blackgrass, it does a great job of hiding it but it’s still there. The craft has cost a lot less to grow mainly in seed costs and nitrogen. Some seem to be really good at growing hybrid though but we will stick with the malting now as have really good homes for it very locally.

 

[robbie]

Its interesting what you say about hyvido @ajd123. I couldn't get hyvido to really work in the way it should either it was costing circa £70 ha for extra seed cost along and despite early N and plenty of it, it still didnt show a better margin over conventional. Yes it yielded more but only enough to cover the extra costs and I'll be buggered if I'm going to work just to line syngenta's pocket. I'll stick with 3+ton/acre of 72 bushel weight cassia any day and the straw is better and 9 times our of 10 more plentiful too.

 

[ajd132]

Its interesting what you say about hyvido @ajd123. I couldn't get hyvido to really work in the way it should either it was costing circa £70 ha for extra seed cost along and despite early N and plenty of it, it still didnt show a better margin over conventional. Yes it yielded more but only enough to cover the extra costs and I'll be buggered if I'm going to work just to line syngenta's pocket. I'll stick with 3+ton/acre of 72 bushel weight cassia any day and the straw is better and 9 times our of 10 more plentiful too.

To be honest the yield of something barely comes into thinking anymore it’s all down to net margin and capital at risk. In a year like this I would rather have much less money tied up in a crop as we cannot control the weather. Basically if the margins the same but I’ve spend X amount less then thats much safer rather than hoping for big yields to pay for it.
I know of quite a few people around here who are dropping the hybrid barley completely.

 

[T Hectares]

Similar experiences here regarding Hybrid barley, Cassia and Glacier always matched the yield but at a lower growing cost so produced a better margin.
2015 Glacier yields were stunning but that's all in the past as it's 4 years since I've grown any as if you have BG grow Spring Barley...

 

[Gerald_Humpington]

This FW video from last year gives a good comparison, two nearby growers ( one good one at that ? ) with the Craft giving 2t/ha over the Otter, given the Craft will have cost £20/ha less in Fungicide and undoubtedly lower seed costs then I can't see that the Otter is going turn a better margin, although without knowing what premium the Craft was sold for it's hard to say.

Harvest 2019 video: Hampshire grower pleased with barley yields and quality - Farmers Weekly

Hampshire grower Sam Burge is pleased with initial yields of his Maris Otter winter malting barley crop destined for the craft ale market. Cutting of the

www.fwi.co.uk

At least the Craft would still hopefully turn a decent margin without the malting premium ??

Did they grow maris otter again this year? Does anyone have an update on how they got on if they did?

 

[southernfarmer]

Southern farmer does have connections with Appels, we grow a lot for them , never really inspired to respond to much on here

 

[shakerator]

To be honest the yield of something barely comes into thinking anymore it’s all down to net margin and capital at risk. In a year like this I would rather have much less money tied up in a crop as we cannot control the weather. Basically if the margins the same but I’ve spend X amount less then thats much safer rather than hoping for big yields to pay for it.
I know of quite a few people around here who are dropping the hybrid barley completely.

this will be the case until we see proper breakout prices

 

[ajd132]

this will be the case until we see proper breakout prices

not sure what you mean by that