Q. What are breeders doing to benchmark quality and innovation in spring barley?

Limagrain plant over 10,000 trial plots in the UK annually and screen varieties on key traits, including treated yield, end-use quality, resistance to pests and pathogens, and agronomic suitability.

It takes at least 8-10 years to develop and breed a variety, from an initial cross to a volume of commercial seed. To decrease this timeline and respond to the market quickly, breeders are combining genomic selection (a tool based on DNA markers, which helps predict yield and end use characters in early generation material), out of season nurseries in the Southern Hemisphere, and the use of greenhouses – to grow more generations per year.

Q. What are the challenges and difficulties in producing a dual use spring barley, like Concerto and LG Diablo?

In comparison to feed barleys, dual use varieties require a good yield with a minimum of agronomic standards (mainly specific weight, brackling and Rhynchosporium resistance), as well as a good malting profile. Brewers and distillers have around a dozen malting specifications that allow a variety to be suitable for both the beer and whisky industries.

The main requirements are an optimal Hot Water Extract (HWE) and Predicted Spirit Yield (PSY), to achieve high sugar extract from the malt and maximise the quantity of alcohol produced. It is also essential to breed for ‘non-Glycosidic Nitriles (GN) producer’ varieties, to avoid the production of harmful substances during distilling.

Q. What are barley breeders currently trialling and testing, that growers could see in varieties in 10 years’ time?

Our challenge will be to provide stable varieties adapted to climate change, and which have a lower impact on the environment, without having economic bearings on growers and end users. We must also adapt our breeding programme in line with the evolution of agricultural practices (e.g., no-till sowing or use of cover crops), and with economic and governmental policy, such as input costs, loss of chemistry and reducing the overall carbon footprint.

Maize was often seen as a challenging crop to grow due to the late harvest. However, new earlier maturing varieties mean the crop can fit very well into rotations, allowing successor crops to be drilled in good

 conditions and in good time.

While not a full alternative to oilseed rape, which will usually provide a better return on investment in most years, maize can be incorporated into rotations as a way to increase the break crop area and leave a good margin.

Agronomically, maize can prove particularly effective on farms wanting to control problematic weeds like blackgrass. The crucial thing to look for is early maturing varieties that will suit your site’s conditions, as you need a variety which will mature at the right rate for your farm to ensure a timely harvest and successful establishment of a successor crop.

Try our OHU Calculator to find the right variety for your location

Maize maturity is all about heat, which is expressed as Ontario Heat Units (OHU). Maize needs to accumulate a minimum of 2500 OHU, before being fit to harvest. The fewer OHU required, the earlier a crop will be ready to harvest.

Earliness is defined by the FAO for the variety; earlier varieties have a lower FAO. They can be ready to harvest as much as two weeks earlier than later maturing ones, which can make a big difference to crop success. If you have a shorter growing season, selecting an earlier variety will reduce the risk of variable weather delaying harvest and will increase the chance of the successor crop being established.

Look for varieties with an FAO of 140-220, to ensure you get a variety that will mature in good time. Varieties like Resolute, Saxon and Mantilla, all combine early maturity with excellent yields, while Gema with an FAO of 150, is very early maturing. To simplify variety choice for your site, download our unique Maize Manager App, available free on the Apple or Google Play stores!

The Maturity Manager section was developed with data from the Met Office. It shows the average heat units for your postcode and then lists varieties which are suited to your farm, and will mature within the average accumulated OHU. The Maturity Manager will allow you to make an informed choice and select the optimum variety – reducing risk, ensuring an effective break crop and the establishment of the successor crop.

Will and Annabel Hamilton, of Bee Edge Farm, grow 200 ha of spring barley for Simpsons Malt across 1,200 ha of mostly contract farmed land, close to the East coast near Eyemouth. Soil type is predominantly sandy loams, with many fields more suited to spring barley than winter wheat.

LG Diablo makes up almost two-thirds of his entire spring barley area (120 ha), with the remainder down to the heritage variety Golden Promise, grown for the craft brewery market.

“LG Diablo is the best spring barley variety I’ve ever grown on this farm,” Mr Hamilton says. “It’s easy to grow, consistently produces distilling quality and has set spring barley yield records on every single farm we’ve grown it on.”

Indeed, the variety won the Hamiltons’ two Bronze Awards in their first year of entering the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) competition in 2021, with a crop that yielded 8.7 t/ha, equivalent to 64% of the 13.5 t/ha potential yield.

Quality was pleasing too, with a specific weight of 64.3 kg/hl, 1% screenings and 1.43% grain nitrogen. “For us, that’s a good spring barley sample, and is fairly typical of the analysis we usually get from LG Diablo.”

Up and away

Mr Hamilton believes a key reason for LG Diablo’s strong performance over the past two seasons is its early vigour, which helps crops establish quickly in the spring and make the most of the shorter growing season.

“Early vigour is really important to us, especially as we often get long spells of cool easterly winds off the North Sea during the spring which can check some spring barley. But LG Diablo is pretty vigorous and seems to be much less affected by such conditions.”

All spring barley is established using a traditional system, with land ploughed in the autumn, before power harrowing and combination drilling in spring at a seed rate of around 400 seeds/m².

“We like to wait until the soil has warmed up as this helps barley come through and get away quickly. That usually means drilling around the second half of March, depending on the season.

“It’s important to create a really good seedbed with a nice fine tilth, into which seed can be sown fairly deep – typically around 30 mm – to ensure there’s good moisture availability for germination.

Seed is dressed with a trace element mix plus growth promoter to help improve establishment, and a nitrogen, phosphate and potash-based seedbed fertiliser is also included at drilling. Once tramlines are visible, Muriate of Potash (MOP) is variably applied where required, based on soil test results. Spring barley typically receives around 110-120 kg N/ha in total.

Mr Hamilton says LG Diablo has proved fairly easy to manage in terms of disease control, with two fungicide sprays usually applied. The first goes on at growth stage 31, with a post-emergence herbicide and trace element mix included where needed, before a second broad-spectrum fungicide is applied prior to ear emergence.

He acknowledges LG Diablo is two to three days later maturing than some other varieties, but says this has not been an issue in the past two seasons. Last year’s YEN crop was harvested on 28 August, which was a fairly typical harvest date for spring barley in that area.

“We find LG Diablo reliable, consistent and high yielding, and some of the reason for that is down to the early vigour the variety shows,” he concludes.

Jonathan Evans is the third generation of the family to milk cows at Berry Hill Farm, near Newport in Pembrokeshire, where he farms with his grandparents Hayden and Dilys, his father Mark and Uncle, Colin. The farm is 154ha of owned and rented land, right on the coast.

They run a herd of 220 all year-round calving cows with typically 185 cows in milk. They are 85% pedigree Holsteins with 15% crossbreds.  They are currently averaging 8150 litres. It is a relatively young herd as a large number of cows were sold in 2019, and yields are increasing as the herd matures.

The farm is also carrying 250 youngstock as it is under TB restrictions. Heifers calve down at 21-25 months old.

The herd grazes for as long as conditions allow, usually from late April until mid-October. Being mainly sandy loams and so close to the sea, the farm is prone to drying out so summer grass growth can be an issue. In the winter, the cows are currently housed as a single milking group, but a new building is due to be available from February. This will allow cows to be housed in two groups of open, higher yielders and in calf, low yielders.

Winter feeding had been based on multicut grass silage and some wholecrop, but in 2021 they made the move back into maize.

“We had grown maize about eight years ago,” Jonathan comments. “We had grown some good crops but had problems with badger damage. However, we decided to give it another go, in particular as we wanted to try and improve milk quality which is important in our Glanbia contract.

“We decided to grow 32 hectares. We wanted early maturing varieties as we needed the crop available to feed as soon as possible, but also as this would allow us to follow up with either a grass ley or forage rye.”

They decided on two varieties, including LG’s Gema which was chosen in discussion with Wynnstay agronomist Lawrence Cozens, who explains that agronomically, Gema would fit the bill and he had grown it successfully previously in the area.

“Gema is an ultra-early maturing variety (FAO 150) with a shorter growing season and good early vigour, making it ideal for a short season rotation,” Mr Cozens explains. “It delivers high dry matter yields and is capable of producing a high starch forage, which is what Jonathan was looking for.

“It was particularly important to be able to drill successor crops and to avoid having bare soils which can lead to increased compaction, soil run-off and nutrient loss.”

The maize land received a significant amount of slurry and manure before ploughing. All the maize was drilled in late April after first cut grass and having waited for soils to reach the optimum 8°C at drilling depth. Fertiliser was applied to the seedbed and a pre-emergence herbicide was used with a follow-up spray based on specific problems.

Mr Cozens comments that the Gema got away particularly quickly as a result of delaying drilling and established strong plants quickly. He had planned to use a foliar fungicide, biostimulant and foliar plant nutrients at tussling, but the feeling was that the Gema had got too tall.

Throughout the growing season, Jonathan Evans commented that the Gema was ahead of the other variety and when ready to harvest, was standing 3 metres high and with large cobs.

“We harvested in late September as soon as the crop was ready because we had a good harvest window. We could possibly have left it a bit longer as the plant was still quite green, but this was not a problem. Harvesting early also meant we could sow 12ha of forage rye for dry cow feed.

“On average, we yielded at 42t/ha with the Gema yielding highest at 44t/ha. The analysis has been good at 33.2% dry matter, 32% starch, 83.7% starch degradability and 11.4MJ ME. We started feeding the day after harvest and began to see improvements immediately.”

Diets at the farm are developed by Wynnstay Head of Dairy Services David Howard who says adding maize silage has had significant benefits to performance. He comments that it has helped make better use of this winter’s grass silages which have generally been variable and below average quality.

“Feeding two forages can help increase total forage dry matter intakes and better balance the grass,” he comments. “But the biggest benefit has been in helping boost milk quality, particularly protein.

“The energy content and the bypass starch have helped drive rumen fermentation and we saw an increase in milk quality as soon as the maize was introduced.”

“The base ration comprises of 25kg first cut silage, 20kg maize silage, 1.0kg of a sugar-based molasses, 0.75kg chopped straw and 3kg of a balancer blend. The cows are then fed to yield in the parlour with an 18% high energy nut.

In September milk quality was running at 4.0% fat and 3.15% protein. In early October it has increased to 4.49% and 3.3% respectively and averaged 4.58% and 3.33% for the month. In November the averages were 4.55% fat and 3.42% protein.  In total the increased milk quality is worth around 1ppl extra milk price. Milk urea has fallen from 0.028% to 0.024% indicating better protein utilisation in the diet.

Milk yields have also risen. The herd is now averaging 29.8 litres compared to 26.0 litres in September, with cows less than 150 days in milk averaging 34 litres.

“Maize will also make an excellent buffer feed when cows are grazing, with the starch helping to complement the high protein in spring grass,” Mr Howard continues.

Based on the improved performance, Jonathan Evans is keen to grow more maize in 2022. He is planning to grow 49 hectares and at least 75% of the crop will be Gema.

He says maize is clearly an excellent feed and is definitely having an economic impact. In addition to the milk quality increases resulting in a better milk price, purchased feed costs per litre have come back from 9.3ppl to 6.3ppl.

He comments that maize is less weather dependent that grass, particularly on a coastal farm.There are fewer variables affecting how it performs, and he can be confident of at least 37t/ha of a high energy and consistent feed to use as the base for diets.

“With substantially higher fertiliser prices, maize has the added benefit of being a lower user of bagged fertiliser than grass and it is all applied early in the season when uptake is greater and not affected by fields drying out.

“I hope to grow enough to feed the cows through the winter and also for buffer feeding. If possible, I would like to feed some maize to youngstock,” he adds.

This 36-page guide includes crops for attracting farmland birds and pollinators, as well as grass field margins and in wildflower areas.  It has a comprehensive section for gamecover crops including maize, sorghums, kale, and autumn sown catch crop options.

Importantly, the guide has a clear two-page summary to the crops that fulfil each Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) options, and a table that gives an instant snapshot of each HiBird product, its use, sowing time and seed rate and pack size. And to suit demand, Limagrain is now offering HiBird seed in 0.5 ha pack sizes. Another new addition to is the inclusion of a seed treatment on its game cover maize to prevent bird damage.

“The Government intends removing it’s three greening requirements in 2021 in England so the focus will be on the Countryside Stewardship Scheme to replace some of these areas. The new ELM scheme is currently under evaluation, but options look likely to include whole field options, as well as the traditional margin areas,” says Limagrain UK Forage Marketing Director Martin Titley.

“We think this is the junction when farmers and growers will need to review their conservation areas and see what works well for them, so they can make changes that best meet CSS and that will also help them in the transition to the new ELM scheme.”

Limagrain’s HiBird Conservation & Gamecover crops brochure 2021 is available from Laura Davey on 01472 370151, laura.davey@limagrain.co.uk or downloaded below

That is the view of Bairds Malt commercial director, Eddie Douglas, who has been impressed with the variety’s consistent quality and good yield potential, even when it is grown further north in the UK.

“We were initially wary of LG Diablo’s slightly later maturity, so in the first year, limited our area to the Lothians and Borders region, before trying it in Aberdeenshire the following year. It performed well in both areas; so well that the variety now makes up 50% of the volume at one of our intake points in Aberdeenshire, and last harvest we saw good crops from as far north as the Moray Coast.”

Eddie Douglas – Bairds Malt Commercial Director

Looking back, he notes that Optic’s maturity used to be deemed “too late” for Scotland, but it soon went on to become an established variety across the country. “LG Diablo’s later maturity is something to watch, but it shouldn’t be an issue. I could see it being the number one variety in Scotland within the next two to three years, if performance is similar to the past three seasons.”

Indeed, Mr Douglas believes LG Diablo may have potential for growers even further north, into the Black Isle region, so will be trialling it at the Bairds Malt variety screening site near Inverness this spring.

“We’ve been running our own private trials programme at various sites for the past 20 years. It gives us the opportunity to test the performance of new and existing varieties in tougher conditions, and allows us to be confident that varieties will be commercially viable before we recommend them to growers.”

LG Diablo’s full approval for brewing and distilling also gives extra flexibility to find a premium market at different levels of grain nitrogen, Mr Douglas notes.

Malting consistency

Consistency is a key requirement for all end users and Mr Douglas says LG Diablo has fully delivered this over the past three years, with strong performance throughout the malting process.

“We take in a full calendar year’s-worth of material in a short six-week window around harvest, so have to make sure quality is consistent.”

LG Diablo has shown “good, even modification levels”, which means grains modify at the same rate throughout the malting process – from steeping, through to germination and drying, he notes. “Some varieties can have grains that hydrate at different rates, which affects the length of time you need to steep grain for.”

LG Diablo’s homogeneity also improves the accuracy of predicted spirit yields (PSY); a key piece of information for distillers. “A typical PSY is around 410-415 litres/tonne, and LG Diablo tends to be at the upper end of that range compared with other varieties.

“From our experience so far, LG Diablo is probably the number one variety in terms of end user performance, ahead of Sassy (second) and Laureate (third).”

Pleasing farm results

On the advice of his grain buyer Scotgrain, Aberdeenshire grower Alan Rae tried LG Diablo for the first time last season and was impressed with the variety’s performance at the 134 ha (330-acre) family farm, near Ellon on the east coast.

All of his 10 ha (25-acre) “test” field met malting specification at 1.4-1.5% grain nitrogen, with yields matching Laureate. “The LG Diablo was harvested first, and we got it all dried and moved off-farm before we even started on the Laureate,” he notes.

Mr Rae says the variety stayed “very clean” last year, having received two fungicides. All of his spring barley was drilled with a combination drill into ploughed ground, around the end of March/early April and received starter fertiliser “down the spout” with seed, to ensure crops got off to a strong start.

“We always apply Bittersalz at heading, which seems to help the barley fill well and certainly last year’s LG Diablo produced a good, bold grain,” he adds.

“If the price is right and our buyer wants the variety, then I will definitely grow it again.”