Propina spring barley

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
Grew it last year for the first time, and have it back again this year, bought a few tonne from Barts before Chrsitmas.

Straw yield good, above average I would say. It did need a late growth regulator, I used Terpal and it stood very well, nothing went down unlike some westminster I had.

Yielded over 3t/ha and all made malting so sold at a nice premium.

No disease issues to speak of and cut well at 14.5%

All went locally for matling just after Christmas.
 

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
Doh, sorry, 3t/acre...:confused:

Mind was on fert rates earlier and think in terms of kg/ha for that......

From our experiance of westminster, have grown it for a few years, I think it has the edge on grain yield but Propino tops it on straw. Malting price for Propino though gives us the better margin.

We reaaly pushed one field of westminster last year on some good ground and that pushed 4t/acre but some went flat.
 

WD-40

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North Yorks
Doh, sorry, 3t/acre...:confused:

Mind was on fert rates earlier and think in terms of kg/ha for that......

From our experiance of westminster, have grown it for a few years, I think it has the edge on grain yield but Propino tops it on straw. Malting price for Propino though gives us the better margin.

We reaaly pushed one field of westminster last year on some good ground and that pushed 4t/acre but some went flat.

What rates of N are you using for a 3t/a yield?
 

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
What rates of N are you using for a 3t/a yield?

Normally put on about 300kg of Nitram and 160kg of double top. Nitram in the seed bed and double top on when we can see the tramlines.

The bit we pushed also had some sewage cake in the seed bed and about 20kg more of Nitram.
 

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
Thats quite a lot of N for the bit you "pushed." What was the grain nitrogen %?

I cant honestly remember but it went for malting just fine to a local maltster. The wet summer on our very light soild may have leached a bit of the N away though I was worried about a late release of N from the sludge solids.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I didn't think you were supposed to use sewage on Malting Barley.

#Icouldbewrong.!

You are right, we are not supposed to spread sewage, industrial waste or PAS110 compost. I might think about doing both. Ahem. You can put as much unpasteurised/unsterilised FYM on as you want though!

We're only a Daily Mail headline away from the next food scare!

Imagine if the whisky industry had big stocks of malt maturing & it came to light that there may be an issue with a batch of bad barley...
 

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
Hmm. More research needed and a word with my agronomist.

I can understand it with something like root crops but not sure what impact sludge would have on the grain as regards safety?

Are there similar rules for milling wheat? Never grown it!
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Warburtons used to specify it in their contracts. I don't see how it could cause an issue unless heavy metals got into the ear. It's just the industry being risk averse.

The water boards around here wouldn't be able to get any winter tip sites if they didn't put sewage on wheat stubbles destined for spring barley...
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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