Pieces_of_Eight
Member
Any market for barley wholecrop before the blackgrass drops any seeds?
Winter or spring barley?
- Thread starter Beefsmith
- Start date
Any market for barley wholecrop before the blackgrass drops any seeds?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Barley follows wheat here. So for winter barley establishment the only option is ploughing to get rid of straw and volunteers that would really cack the job.
We can direct drill spring barley, as by then the straw has broken down and all the volunteers have germinated.
We grow both to avoid creating a routine that some weeds will take advantage of, as said spring germinating BG.
If it’s heavy land then one pass with discs in the autumn so there’s actually some tilth to work with in the spring. Subsoil according to taste. Power harrow lightly and roll if it’s a bit rough in front of the DD in the spring.
I’ve noticed a big increase in ergot in spring barley with direct drilling. Something we never had at all with conventionally establish spring barley. But hopefully the autumn disc pass will help with that by burying and innoculant / fruiting bodies and helping reduce hedge bottom grass weed incursion.
We can direct drill spring barley, as by then the straw has broken down and all the volunteers have germinated.
We grow both to avoid creating a routine that some weeds will take advantage of, as said spring germinating BG.
If it’s heavy land then one pass with discs in the autumn so there’s actually some tilth to work with in the spring. Subsoil according to taste. Power harrow lightly and roll if it’s a bit rough in front of the DD in the spring.
I’ve noticed a big increase in ergot in spring barley with direct drilling. Something we never had at all with conventionally establish spring barley. But hopefully the autumn disc pass will help with that by burying and innoculant / fruiting bodies and helping reduce hedge bottom grass weed incursion.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
The winter barley is in ear. The spring barley is at ankle height and struggling with the dry.
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
I am going to plump for Hybrid Winter Barley, DD’d if you want to, every time.
There is absolutely no doubt IMO, that it has an incredible suppression ability against Blackgrass.
I use it as one of my major BG strategy tools. Especially in a 2nd white straw crop situation. Where BG is really bad, even as a 1st (and 2nd).
There is absolutely no doubt IMO, that it has an incredible suppression ability against Blackgrass.
I use it as one of my major BG strategy tools. Especially in a 2nd white straw crop situation. Where BG is really bad, even as a 1st (and 2nd).
We seem to have created this problem here, no bg to be seen in jan yet quite a bit now appearing in wheat. Got to hand it to this weed it is bloofy good at adjusting to survive. Perhaps we need to get a wide weed wiper
ollie989898
Member
Used to hear the same thing a lot. But I used to see a lot of blackgrass under the canopy as well.
- Location
- Kenilworth
That looks good.
Where did you get the mix from ?
Any idea how much it is a ha please ?
Pm if you prefer.
- Location
- North West
PM’d you
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Doesn’t seem to happen here. BG just gives up.
- Location
- Yorks
Are you following W wheat with W barley using direct drilling? If so, how do you deal with the volunteers
Does it matter?
- Location
- Yorks
Little bit doesn't matter, but increases the moisture content, and with the price of gas...!!!
Fair point, spray off? We have some in barley
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
There seems to be enough time to use a sniff of Roundup before we drill and/or put some in with the pre-em.
My rotation is WW, WB, then W Linseed.
There is plenty of time after WB and W Linseed harvest in July to get a chit of volunteers, before drilling the following crop.
Not so between the WW and WB, but we seem to get away with it. Because the Hybrid WB is so aggressive it has a similar effect on the volunteer Wheat as it does BG.
However, because Wheat is a higher price than Barley, a bit of contamination doesn’t seem to worry the mill.
W Linseed is also good at controlling BG. We use Avadex (liquid) pre-em, followed by Centurion Max inNovember.
Unlike Rape, The Centurion Max, doesn’t hammer the W Linseed and we end up with an incredibly clean BG free crop.
I really haven’t found any more volunteer issues with DD’ing than I did conventionally.
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- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Because 2/3rds of my harvest is done in July, I tend to get away with very little if any drying here.
My dryer is a 12 tonne diesel fired Master mobile. I haven’t used it for years, but must keep it just in case!
My WB tends to come in at around 13-14% even with a bit at wheat in it. Blowing cold air at night through it seems to keep it just fine.
The W Linseed leaves the farm by Lorry to a store quite soon after harvest and because it needs to be sunny to harvest it isn’t too difficult to make sure it is 9%. I can easily mix any wet stuff with the dry to get an even moisture. I also blow cold air at night, which helps.
If the air is 5 degrees C or more below the temperature of the grain, it cannot make it wetter no matter how humid that air is, only drier.
The Wheat can be more difficult. However, I deliver all my Wheat and Barley to ABN mill at Enstone by Fastrac and trailer. They will take it (and the Barley) at up to 16.5% moisture. Their claims for doing so is about half what it would cost me to dry it.
It is all a system that works for me guaranteeing maximum income for my crops.
Also, I’d far rather spend my time delivering slightly wet grain, than watch that f’ing drier working! The Haulage more than pays for any moisture claims. And there is no dust!
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- Location
- Yorks
Just wondered how you got on. Sounds like not too much of a problem.
- Location
- North yorkshire
You’ll alwAys struggle to establish spring barley with a direct drill the soil is to cold in the spring and unless you move it it won’t dry out . I’ve gone back to rotational ploughing where spring barley is
- Location
- Yorks
We currently plough most of our ground, but a couple of years back it was just too wet to get near a heavy land field. Too wet to establish winter barley, and stood in water over winter. Just stubble over winter.
Thankfully a nice dry spring, so Mid April we disced it 2" deep, left it a good 24 hrs, disced again, then about 24hrs later combi drilled. Didn't rain for weeks afterwards.
We got the seed down on top of the moisture, then rolled it in. Good germination and a good crop. It might have been good luck!
- Location
- North yorkshire
Yes you can do that with one field but you can’t leave all your spring ground till mid April it stops raining here by then and there’s no moister left need to be cracking on early March.
Over winter plough,quick run over with a triple k the straight over with combi drill
Over winter plough,quick run over with a triple k the straight over with combi drill
- Location
- Suffolk
We have a few fields that look fecking awful. I just hope it isn't enough to ruin the sample.
Mostly because it was dry in early september. Its tempting to buy a stubble rake as I think that would have helped.