Winter barley costings start to finish

[Two Tone]

I’m quite a fan of growing Winter Barley for several reason:
It is cheaper than growing wheat.
It requires less fertiliser. 180kgs N is ample.
It requires maybe 2/3rds the fungicides of wheat.
It is very good at suppressing Blackgrass if the Barley is tall.
Early harvest.
Good entry to winter Break crops such as Rape and Linseed.
Valuable straw.
You can drill it early and therefore into good conditions.

I preffer using Hybrid varieties as they certainty outyield conventionals.
Don’t be too put off by high seed prices, the seed rate is much lower.
Don’t listen to Syngenta’s how to grow it.
You do not need the PGR’s they suggest. Or the amount of Nitrogen.

The secret to growing good Winter Barley yields is preventing it from going yellow in the Spring.
Ice-road trucking some N on, on a frost in Feb prevents this.

I’ll agree with @ollie989898 that you should not go the extra mile to get unachievable yields. It’ll do what it will do quite cheaply.

Some say that it is possible to grow Hybrids as HS seed, because it is a restored Hybrid. Not sure of the legalities of that though.


It’s biggest problem depends on how much Spring Barley is grown that doesn’t make malting grade, therefore is dumped on the Feed Market. Much of which needs exporting.
However, if you can feed it to your own livestock, you are on to a winner.

Feed mills are beginning to wake up to the fact that the difference between Feed wheat and Barley prices is too wide, making Barley a cheaper product to use. But, there is a limit an how much Barley you can feed to chickens.

 

[yellow belly]

I’m quite a fan of growing Winter Barley for several reason:
It is cheaper than growing wheat.
It requires less fertiliser. 180kgs N is ample.
It requires maybe 2/3rds the fungicides of wheat.
It is very good at suppressing Blackgrass if the Barley is tall.
Early harvest.
Good entry to winter Break crops such as Rape and Linseed.
Valuable straw.
You can drill it early and therefore into good conditions.

I preffer using Hybrid varieties as they certainty outyield conventionals.
Don’t be too put off by high seed prices, the seed rate is much lower.
Don’t listen to Syngenta’s how to grow it.
You do not need the PGR’s they suggest. Or the amount of Nitrogen.

The secret to growing good Winter Barley yields is preventing it from going yellow in the Spring.
Ice-road trucking some N on, on a frost in Feb prevents this.

I’ll agree with @ollie989898 that you should not go the extra mile to get unachievable yields. It’ll do what it will do quite cheaply.

Some say that it is possible to grow Hybrids as HS seed, because it is a restored Hybrid. Not sure of the legalities of that though.


It’s biggest problem depends on how much Spring Barley is grown that doesn’t make malting grade, therefore is dumped on the Feed Market. Much of which needs exporting.
However, if you can feed it to your own livestock, you are on to a winner.

Feed mills are beginning to wake up to the fact that the difference between Feed wheat and Barley prices is too wide, making Barley a cheaper product to use. But, there is a limit an how much Barley you can feed to chickens.

this year that is the case
next year barley could well be within £10 of feed wheat

the main advantage of winter barley on a livestock farm is early harvest for straw and muck /slurry all can be done when it is dryer

 

[Farma Parma]

I’m quite a fan of growing Winter Barley for several reason:
It is cheaper than growing wheat.
It requires less fertiliser. 180kgs N is ample.
It requires maybe 2/3rds the fungicides of wheat.
It is very good at suppressing Blackgrass if the Barley is tall.
Early harvest.
Good entry to winter Break crops such as Rape and Linseed.
Valuable straw.
You can drill it early and therefore into good conditions.

I preffer using Hybrid varieties as they certainty outyield conventionals.
Don’t be too put off by high seed prices, the seed rate is much lower.
Don’t listen to Syngenta’s how to grow it.
You do not need the PGR’s they suggest. Or the amount of Nitrogen.

The secret to growing good Winter Barley yields is preventing it from going yellow in the Spring.
Ice-road trucking some N on, on a frost in Feb prevents this.

I’ll agree with @ollie989898 that you should not go the extra mile to get unachievable yields. It’ll do what it will do quite cheaply.

Some say that it is possible to grow Hybrids as HS seed, because it is a restored Hybrid. Not sure of the legalities of that though.


It’s biggest problem depends on how much Spring Barley is grown that doesn’t make malting grade, therefore is dumped on the Feed Market. Much of which needs exporting.
However, if you can feed it to your own livestock, you are on to a winner.

Feed mills are beginning to wake up to the fact that the difference between Feed wheat and Barley prices is too wide, making Barley a cheaper product to use. But, there is a limit an how much Barley you can feed to chickens.

i agree with most of that but never grown hybrid barleys here & why you ask well every farm i see that does really struggles too get rid of the shear amount of volunteers in the next crop
plus its smaller grain like as we call it HENCORN & id rather stick with much bolder looking conventional barley.
deffo good to get some harvesting done in July thats for sure & land cleared Straw always wanted so its always baled up.
fab entry for OSR esp up North as my OSR after SB is half the crop going into winter.
One thing i have done is plough the previous SB stubbles of which all of my WB is currently growing on & looking very well.

 

[Chae1]

We grow it as a entry for forage crops. Spreads workload/risk between winter and spring barley. More straw and yield for not a lot of extra growing costs.

My growing costs would be nowhere near £500/acre. Need to check my greenlight for exact growing costs.

We keep cows so straw is handy and feed barley from it. We grow it after long term ley.

 

[Farma Parma]

We grow it as a entry for forage crops. Spreads workload/risk between winter and spring barley. More straw and yield for not a lot of extra growing costs.

My growing costs would be nowhere near £500/acre. Need to check my greenlight for exact growing costs.

We keep cows so straw is handy and feed barley from it. We grow it after long term ley.

would i not be right in thinking the further north you farm it be even more beneficial to have this for like you say spread harvest over also.

 

[farmerm]

Grow a crop of wheat and buy in the barley...

 

[Chae1]

Grow a crop of wheat and buy in the barley...

Still have bad memories of harvesting wheat in November!

 

[farmerm]

Still have bad memories of harvesting wheat in November!

fair point I have no idea the climate and soil type where the OP farms

 

[lloyd]

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.

200kgs of fss is more than £14 an acre is it not?
Edit Do you mean off the tump and royalty included?

 

[teslacoils]

200kgs of fss is more than £14 an acre is it not?
Edit Do you mean off the tump and royalty included?

£250/t. 80kg/ac. £20 if you've put a dressing on. Bit less if you take it off the heap and pay the royalty.

 

[Zippy768]

Grow a crop of wheat and buy in the barley...

Grow it as a second cereals. Ww, wb and break crop is your 3 crops. Simple

 

[farmerm]

Grow it as a second cereals. Ww, wb and break crop is your 3 crops. Simple

its ww ww wb break here... cant be doing with wb or a break crop every 3 years

 

[Zippy768]

its ww ww wb break here... cant be doing with wb or a break crop every 3 years

Fair enough. I cant be doing with disappointed of growing 2nd wheats.
Big fan of WB here, opportunity to be 1/3 done before August. Thrashes well and lots of bales in the dry before the weather turns in August .
Hate SB

 

[Spud]

Potatoes, ww, sb, wb, beet, s oats, ww, wb here.
Heavy land is ww, ww, w beans, ww, ww, s oats.
As a general rule, muck before roots (and oats on heavy land) and cover crops before most spring crops. (Not between oats & beet)
Mixture of plough, min til & direct drill establishment.

 

[robbie]

£250/t. 80kg/ac. £20 if you've put a dressing on. Bit less if you take it off the heap and pay the royalty.

Why £250 ton????

Surely of the heap is sale price plus royalty.

Or are you adding a bit for the "hassle factor"

 

[puppet]

Can you grow 2 tons per acre and get the straw dry? If not don't bother.
On a livestock farm Spring barley is often better as you can mess up a field with cattle or graze more sheep.
2 bulk loads of feed barley in November is a lot less hassle.

 

[farmerm]

Fair enough. I cant be doing with disappointed of growing 2nd wheats.
Big fan of WB here, opportunity to be 1/3 done before August. Thrashes well and lots of bales in the dry before the weather turns in August .
Hate SB

2nd wheats can do well here... in 2019, aside from 1 small field that was never quite happy, the yield monitor on the combine never waivered as we moved between 1st and 2nd wheats... though its not always the case I admit. WB here always seems to be come ready only after a dry spell breaks and we end up sitting on our hands for 3 weeks with the weather teasing opportunities that never arrise whilst I keep promising the family we cant take our holiday until next week once the barley is in...

 

[2wheels]

Still have bad memories of harvesting wheat in November!

Not November but late October yes.

 

[curlietailz]

We introduced winter barley on our arable farm to get an early start to harvest, gain a good entry into OSR and spread our workload

OSR not so important as we haven’t grown any this year, but will still grow it as it’s better for us

 

[Chae1]

Not November but late October yes.

You were a soft southerner!?