Wheat after Spring Barley

Bignor Farmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
West Sussex
Not exactly the textbook rotation, I know! But has anyone done it?

I often hear farmers talking about it here on the South Downs where they are usually the best paying crops but never actually seen it done.

I would think baled barley straw followed an 8 week cover crop would be helpful? Muck back in front of the barley. Wheat at ~400 seeds in late October?

What could go wrong? Do you think I’d suffer a wheat yield penalty?
 
I was on my early 20 and on my own so putting an old head on young shoulders wasent possible I learnt the hard way trying to cut costs and increase output when grain was under £100 ton
 

CORK

Member
Many people, myself included think you get the biggest yield gain after ploughing up a long term ley the 2nd year.

So spring barley then wheat after spring barley makes sense.

Yep, all that old grass sod has rotted enough by the second year to release lots of N & K.

Sowing winter wheat after spring barley sounds to me like a recipe for Take All and not much else.
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
Have done it here, after the year we had a real wet Autumn so we couldnt block crop it all, so drilled WW after SB to get all the blocks back into the proper rotation. Was fine, didnt detect any major yield decrease. I have 3 fields this year in WW after SB, due to failed OSR drillings.
 

benny6910

Member
Arable Farmer
I’ve done it a few times and I have done it again this year, volunteers are a bit of a issue but if you cover crop it then you should get a good decent germination
 

patrick4

Member
It depends what crop was before spring barley. if it was a good break crop take all all be at a low level, often done this because of late root crop harvest hence s barley drilled in spring followed by w wheat.Green bridge must not be allowed to develop and drill a bit later. all the better if on heavier soil.yield loss marginal
 

robbie

Member
BASIS
I've said it before in another thread but around here lots of people(me included) do it. Sugar beet followed by spring barley followed by wheat, I consider it to be a 1.5 cereal and not a true 2nd cereal because of the 18 month break and the short growing season of the spring barley.

A good stale seed bed or better still the plough gets rid of the volunteers
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
Done it as a side by side trial, following peas and sb, in the same field, more than once. Mainly because peas are now a filthy crop on dirty ground, with all the good chemistry gone. Very little difference on combining day, except more black grass after the peas. As said, give Vols time to grow, plough down then stale seedbed.
If you need stubble turnips in rotation I think it works ok, ST, SB,WW, WB, ST.
 
when I worked on a farm in dorset 1980s there rotation was grass spring barley wheat wheat spring barley grass they had done it for 20 years or more
they had work all year round with suckler cows winter ploughing
it would be a good rotation before rape was grown and would have kept resistant weeds at bay couch could be a problem but glyphosate sorts that now

I have wheat following spring barley this year much less than 1% barley growing in the late October drilled wheat

when we grew longer runs of wheat takeall was always worse after an early planted (September) cereal crop may planted spring barley will be a much lower risk
takeall is usually bad after difficult wet autumn and winters with early planted wheat and an early planted previous wheat crop

bad black grass can be a much bigger problem than takeall

in future if I am forced to plant spring barley after late harvested break crops then will follow with wheat the higher yield from spring barley as a first cereal will make up and not planting when conditions are not good enough is essential ,what ever the neighbours chatter is !!!
 
Last edited:
Not exactly the textbook rotation, I know! But has anyone done it?

I often hear farmers talking about it here on the South Downs where they are usually the best paying crops but never actually seen it done.

I would think baled barley straw followed an 8 week cover crop would be helpful? Muck back in front of the barley. Wheat at ~400 seeds in late October?

What could go wrong? Do you think I’d suffer a wheat yield penalty?

We’ve done this a few times and can’t recal any issues really. It’s defintely better to remove the barley straw as the wheat doesn’t germinate as well if it’s thick straw. We always go 600 home saved seeds in November.
 

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