Winter barley costings start to finish

[Sam myers]

Good morning everybody,
Currently looking for advice and anything anybody has to offer will be greatly appreciated! I’m currently a store cattle farmer with mixed arable and grass land but I’m looking to expand so I’m thinking about taking out some of our grasses and putting more winter barley in!

we have a rough idea of the costing from buying the seed, fertiliser costs, spray costs to combining costs (luckily we swap combining with a friend and we do their baling) I was just wondering if anybody had a very specific price or ballpark price per acre or hectare for growing winter barley everything included!
Thanks a lot in advance I really appreciate it!
Sam

 

[Spencer]

If you know your seed, fert, spray and combining costs, then you just need to cost your establishment and application costs then divide by expected yield...?

That’s as specific as it gets..

 

[Brisel]

Allow £50/acre for establishment and the same again for harvesting, spraying, fertilising, drying, carting. Variable costs are available in management pocket books like John Nix or free from the main high street banks. HSBC has a good set of figures as a free download.

Forward Planning | Farm Planning and Budgeting

Packed with all the insight you need to help you prepare a farm budget, understand farm gross margins and forecasts and benchmark your business with confidence.

www.business.hsbc.uk

 

[teslacoils]

I'm not sure what the loss of CTL will do to fungicide costs tbh.

 

[Brisel]

1 litre of CTL was around £6. 1.5 litres of folpet will be twice that.

 

[teslacoils]

Will it do the job though?

 

[Flat 10]

Will it do the job though?

I doubt it.

 

[Flat 10]

Allow £50/acre for establishment and the same again for harvesting, spraying, fertilising, drying, carting. Variable costs are available in management pocket books like John Nix or free from the main high street banks. HSBC has a good set of figures as a free download.

Forward Planning | Farm Planning and Budgeting

Packed with all the insight you need to help you prepare a farm budget, understand farm gross margins and forecasts and benchmark your business with confidence.

www.business.hsbc.uk

Another vote for Nix.

 

[Sam myers]

If you know your seed, fert, spray and combining costs, then you just need to cost your establishment and application costs then divide by expected yield...?

That’s as specific as it gets..

apologies I should have been more specific, I’m looking for an average! Everyone has different costs I just want to work out an average

 

[teslacoils]

Solo, press, drill, roll £50
200kg fss £14
0.6 liberator £10
Spring blw herbicide, manganese, two fungicides £30
Roundup, combine and cart £50
Sprayer £15

Almost all my fert is digestate. So £175/AC. If you're looking for full costs including lime, etc and bagged npk and new seed and a rental equivalent, it's close to £500/AC.

 

[Spencer]

apologies I should have been more specific, I’m looking for an average! Everyone has different costs I just want to work out an average

John Nix then as stated above

 

[Sam myers]

Solo, press, drill, roll £50
200kg fss £14
0.6 liberator £10
Spring blw herbicide, manganese, two fungicides £30
Roundup, combine and cart £50
Sprayer £15

Almost all my fert is digestate. So £175/AC. If you're looking for full costs including lime, etc and bagged npk and new seed and a rental equivalent, it's close to £500/AC.

Thanks a lot mate! Does the £500/AC account for absolutely everything? We have our own drill and run our own equipment besides combine! So for us it would just be buying the seed, running costs of equipment, sprays, NPK and paying for combine to cut!

 

[teslacoils]

It's all about how you value your land and time. Those who consider everything "bought and paid for" I suspect will say their costs are two buttons and half of mild. But I value my time, depreciation, and a real market rent. I'll do you figures to show whatever you want.

 

[Farmer Fin]

When ever I do the maths on winter barely, it never really stacks up on its own. If using as an entry to something else then that needs to be taken into account. Often it’s rotation margin that should be looked at.
Agree with @teslacoils that you have to cost everything otherwise you are kidding yourself.

 

[teslacoils]

I pretty much swapped out the barley fir grass now. When I grow barley next it will be for silage. I'm in a mainly arable area. That probably says enough.

 

[teslacoils]

The argument for entry for grass or osr has been largely negated by the death of osr growing, and ad forage crops which pay better and are less faff.

 

[Sam myers]

It's all about how you value your land and time. Those who consider everything "bought and paid for" I suspect will say their costs are two buttons and half of mild. But I value my time, depreciation, and a real market rent. I'll do you figures to show whatever you want.

Thank you I really appreciate that! We own our land and machinery! So costs that end will be minimal with the expected wear and tear! We run a carrier over our land twice to establish a seed bed then drill after that with a farm force drag/amazone combination! Then we spray herbicides and fungicides and round up ourselves, we put on our NPK on ourself but I’m unsure of the rate? How much does winter barley require? And to be conservative let’s say I will have to pay to get a combine and driver in to cut it for me! Would you have a rough idea of the costings per acre with all that being said? Thanks a lot if you do I really appreciate it!

 

[Brisel]

180 kg/ha N for winter barley after wheat but if you’re following a long ley grazed and mucked then you can cut that back a bit. Nitram is currently around £228/t so allow £120-130ha for N and S. P and K to suit (£60/ha at bagged fertiliser replacement cost) but again with regular slurry/FYM you might not need any. Worth testing your soil as barley doesn’t like acidity that grass will tolerate better.

Edited to correct a typo in the N cost.

 

[Spud]

If you're planning on growing barley to reduce bought in straw and feeding the grain to your own cattle, then following it with kale or turnips to feed, then a spring barley undersown with grass, it makes a bit of sense.
Otherwise, in your situation, save yourself the hassle and leave it in grass. No one ever got rich growing winter barley.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Don't go spending big money on barley fert and fungicide. People seem to want to chase the rainbow in winter barley and it never made sense to me.