This season’s prolonged dry weather may have taken its toll on winter barley yields, but for Lincolnshire farmer, George Thompson of Grasby House Farm, LG Caravelle has still earned its place in the rotation.
Harvested from mid-July, yields ranged from 5.6 t/ha on the poorest fields, to just over 8 t/ha on the best. While below the 10 t/ha achieved in better seasons, George says that the crop stood up well, given the conditions.
“Looking at my barley crops at the beginning of April, they looked marvellous,” he says. “I was hoping for close to 10 tonnes per hectare at harvest, then the drought set in. We had less than one millimetre of rain in June and July, which caused the crops to lose tillers and, in turn, yield.”
George has been impressed with both the yield and straw quality of LG Caravelle.
Despite the challenging season, George has no hesitation about growing LG Caravelle again.
“Definitely,” he says. “I tried a competitor variety previously on two 10-acre fields, and LG Caravelle combined a tank load more – four tonnes more in fact. LG Caravelle was better quality too, with better straw.”
Recommended by both the LG contracts team and George’s agronomist, LG Caravelle has consistently impressed in both independent trials and on-farm. For George, who supplies straw commercially, producing a clean, high-quality straw crop is just as important as grain yield, with straw returning £346/ha this year.
Disease pressure remained low throughout the season, allowing the crop to perform well with a simple, need-based fungicide programme. Looking ahead, he plans to apply nitrogen slightly earlier in dry springs, while continuing to favour later October drilling, after seeing his best grain samples come from crops drilled later in the month.
LG Caravelle has once again demonstrated reliable performance for George, even when the weather had other ideas.
About The Author
Heather Oldfield
Cereals Product Manager
