Spring barleys 0. 5t/ha down on five-year average - farmers weekly

© David Jones Spring barley is more than half a tonne down on the five-year average, reflecting the challenging season for spring cropping. AHDB Recommended List (RL) trial harvest results

show that this year’s spring barley control plots yielded 7.22t/ha compared with the five-year average of 7.72t/ha. Farmers have also seen lower spring barley yields, with the dry conditions

at drilling along with the tricky harvest being blamed.  See also: Harvest 2017: The 5 top-yielding spring barley varieties The last of the spring barley RL harvest results were published

yesterday (10 October), revealing that some varieties bucked the trend, delivering up to 7% more than the control varieties. Candidate variety Diablo tops the variety pecking order at 107%

of the controls for 2017 harvest. The Limagrain variety is currently undergoing malting trials. A clutch of five other varieties yielded 105% in 2017, including fellow Limagrain candidate

Tomahawk, RAGT’s candidate Asteroid along with the already recommended varieties Planet, Sienna and Laureate. See also: Healthy profit from spring oilseed rape despite poor season The spring

barley results also varied widely between sites, with the control varieties at East Malling in Kent averaging only 4.62t/ha, while St Boswells in the Scottish borders was nearly 5t/ha

higher at 9.46t/ha. For the other crops, the final results for winter wheat and winter barley were close to the five-year average and oilseed rape was just below the four-year average.