Spring barley LG Diablo has been given Full Approval for malt distilling use by the Malting Barley Committee, and has also been moved to Provisional approval 2 for brewing.
This makes LG Diablo the highest yielding spring barley variety on the AHDB Recommended List with full approval for malt distilling.
Based on its move to provisional approval 2 for brewing, if full approval for brewing is also obtained next year, LG Diablo will be the highest yielding dual-use spring barley, says Matt Shand, UK Arable Wholesale Sales Manager for Limagrain UK.
LG Diablo’s UK yield sits 2% above the current market favourites at 105% of control. Last year, LG Diablo out-performed other leading varieties such as RGT Planet and Laureate, by a significant amount in the key malting barley growing areas across the East (106%) and North (107%) regions, in fungicide treated trials.
LG Diablo’s untreated yields also sit at the top of the yield table alongside Laureate at 94% of control, and 1% over that of RGT Planet, demonstrating the variety’s very robust disease resistance profile, says Ron Granger, Limagrain’s technical arable manager.
Ron Granger, Limagrain’s Arable Technical Manager
“In terms of agronomic package, LG Diablo has straw characteristics similar to RGT Planet; medium in height (73cm) with good lodging and brackling resistance. Although rated slightly later maturing, this would not appear to have an effect regarding its high yield potential as seen in the very testing season of 2018.”
“The very high yield potential combined with a a good specific weight does mean that LG Diablo fits the bill as a good feed barley variety.”
LG Diablo has a very good specific weight, which is important in the malting industry as malting is a volume-based process and low specific weights cause reduced throughput in the processing plants, points out Mr Shand.
“So growers with low specific weight parcels will incur penalties if specifications are not met, particularly in times of over-production.”
“Its hot water extract is a similar level to that of Concerto – a trait that helped Concerto to become a benchmark variety. Again it’s about meeting the needs of the market as a high hot water extract is heavily desired by the end user in order for them to achieve higher sugar extraction rates from the malt and the ability to create more alcohol – and offers this.”
“Now that the variety has been given the green light by the industry for distilling, we believe that LG Diablo will fulfil the requirements of both grower and end users to become a key variety in the spring barley sector in the next couple of years”
From The Farm Gate
Tony Bambridge of B&C Farming Ltd and Philip Gorringe a Herefordshire farmer who operates 370 hectares share their recent experiences on the farm.
Tony Bambridge, MD for contract farmers, B&C Farming Ltd, handles the day to day operations for the business, producers of high-quality seed potatoes, based in northeast Norfolk, near Aylsham.
“I left off my last contribution, hoping that the water storage reservoirs would be replenished over the winter; alas, aquifers are still very low, although recent rainfall has meant we have just started to pump again. But water levels remain perilously low and we will need to continue pumping for a while yet. For now, the Environment Agency is working with us and we are managing to continue to pump, but all of this is on a day-to-day basis – so we really are on a knife-edge. Our sugar beet yields were better than anticipated – although still on the low side at 65t/ha – back in August, we thought we would be looking at 40-45t/ha. Considering we break-even at 75t/ha – it’s been quite a knock to margins. The mild winter also brings the threat of aphids and an increased risk of Beet yellows virus, as we look to grow a crop without any neonicotinoid seed treatment this year. Recent BBRO trials have shown yield losses of up to 42% due to infection with BYV. It’s been bitterly disappointing that the UK has not managed to obtain a derogation, as 13 other countries have managed to – despite the UK being at high risk due to our maritime climate. We plan to drill early to avoid the aphids, but we are already seeing reports of aphid flights – so we may have to rethink this. It’s not all doom and gloom, however – the mild and dry winter provided us with a good start to fertiliser applications and early season fungicide sprays, and the spring barley has been drilled into excellent conditions. All we need now is 40 days of rain!”
Phillip Gorringe farms 370 hectares on a Duchy of Cornwall tenancy, he runs a herd of suckler cows and a racing kart business. His cropping is all grown for seed.
Spring-like conditions in late February continued the trend of a mild winter, and despite some more recent ‘normal’ wet and windy conditions, soils are still in great condition after the dry summer. Drilling some late winter wheat in January conditions was excellent, and there were hints of dust behind the drill – that really is a first! The conditions have really suited the forage rape; good seedbeds meant that most, if not all the seeds ‘took’, and the crop got up and away easily. As a result, we have seen very little Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle (CSFB) damage – it could be third time lucky for us with this crop. We are generally pleased with how our crops are doing, although it’s about now that we wish we had grown more fodder turnip, as fodder crop prices go through the roof. Our local farmer group has been active, as we share thoughts and ideas on how we are going to continue without the use of Redigo Deter seed dressing, and face the loss of many of our commonly used triazole fungicides over the next few years, which will make disease control in grass particularly challenging. We are working with ADAS to look at possible options based on a scientific process. We hope that this will provide us with some good reasons behind alternatives – rather than just taking a scattergun approach, based on hearsay and whims. Another area we hope to gain a better understanding of is how to build yield in a grass crop – one of the challenges in growing grass is how to even out tillering, for easier management. One of the farmer group members is also looking at improving yield mapping of grass. Anything that will help us manage and grow grass as we do for cereals, is a step in the right direction.”
Winter barleys make their debut
Two new varieties available this autumn, from the very successful Limagrain UK barley breeding programme.
LG Flynn and LG Mountain offer growers two high yielding 2-row feed winter barley varieties, with differing desirable agronomic characteristics.
For growers looking to make the most of the opportunities offered by winter barleys, there are two new varieties available this autumn, from the very successful Limagrain UK barley breeding programme, that launched ‘California’ over five years ago.
LG Flynn and LG Mountain offer growers two high yielding 2-row feed winter barley varieties, with differing desirable agronomic characteristics – it’s important that growers choose the right variety for their situation on-farm.
LG Flynn offers growers agronomic attributes of good straw strength and disease resistance, combined with a very high specific weight – all key qualities of a ‘classic’ feed barley.
The variety also carries the valuable attribute of resistance to Barley Yellow Mosaic Virus (BaYMV).
In AHDB Recommended List 2019/20 trials across all regions, LG Flynn has performed consistently, producing high yields for both treated and untreated trials.
Its UK fungicide treated performance is 104%, against 103% for KWS Orwell, and 6% over KWS Cassia, at 98%. The variety also offers a strong disease resistance package, with a 6 against Rhynchosporium and a 6 for Net Blotch.
“The stand out attribute of LG Flynn is its high specific weight; at 69.8kg/hl, it has one of the highest specific weights available and is similar to KWS Cassia with low screening scores,” explains Limagrain UK’s senior barley breeder, Mark Glew.
“We know that farmers like to grow big, bold samples, and like with wheat varieties, good specific weight in barley would appear to be more robust, especially in times of stress or erratic weather patterns,” says Ron Granger, arable technical manager for Limagrain UK.
Specific weights for barleys were starting to drop in newer varieties, compared to older varieties. This came about as breeders’ drove to produce ever higher yielding varieties, unfortunately at the cost of grain quality.“
*LG Flynn and LG Mountain buck a trend, offering a combination of both high yields and high specific weight.
LG Mountain is one of the highest yielding 2-row feed barley varieties available, with a good all-round disease resistance profile, combined with early maturity and BaYMV resistance.
“This is a barley that represents a significant step forward in yield for 2-row barley varieties, over other commercial varieties we are really pleased with the consistency of yield over seasons and regions, and in treated and untreated trials – particularly in the east and north,” says Mark Glew.
LG Mountain has good grain quality attributes, with a very good specific weight of 68.9kg/hl – similar to KWS Glacier.
LG Mountain has an earlier maturity (-1) than LG Flynn (+1), which is valuable for growers looking at getting an earlier harvest for WOSR establishment.
“This earlier maturity, combined with a good specific weight, should also give growers confidence for securing yield potential in stressful seasons of drought, as seen in summer 2018,” says Mr. Glew.
Breeders Perspective | Q&A
Mark Glew, Senior Barley Breeder at Limagrain UK raises common questions about BYDV and its effects on Winter Barley, and offers some advice
Q. What is BYDV and what are its effects on winter barley?
Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) is an infection transferred by aphids which causes yellowing of plants. The symptoms are seen in the spring, when the leaf tip starts to turn yellow, gradually spreading to the base of the plant. Infected plants may be severely stunted and do not come into ear, remaining dwarfed at around 3 inches, eventually killing it. This results in devastating yield loss.
Q. How can breeders help growers reduce the risk of BYDV?
Insecticides are currently used but chemical restrictions, such as the ban of neonicotinoid seed treatments, are increasingly limiting the options available to growers for chemical control. Fortunately, breeders have identified a gene called YD2 which provides effective varietal tolerance.
Tolerant varieties still become infected by the virus, but the plant shows none of the detrimental symptoms and associated yield losses of non-tolerant varieties.
Breeders can select for varieties with BYDV tolerance by using marker selection and the introduction of new varieties with BYDV tolerance is the number one priority for winter barley breeders. Rafaela winter barley comes from the Limagrain Belgium breeding programme and offers high yields with BYDV tolerance.
Q. How can BYDV be best controlled?
Using an integrated approach of choosing varieties with genetic BYDV tolerance, alongside correctly timed insecticide sprays will provide the best level of protection. The real value of varietal tolerance is that it protects the plant throughout the year, so if you can’t get on the land in the autumn to spray, the genetic tolerance will protect the plant in the same way as neonicotinoid seed treatments previously did.
NSA Sheep Event visitors invited to bring a bag of fresh grass for free quality test
Limagrain, suppliers of Sinclair McGill and Monarch grass seed mixtures, will test fresh grass samples using its NIRS mobile testing machine and provide an immediate nutritional analysis of the crop.
Limagrain is inviting farmers to bring fresh grass samples to their stand at NSA Welsh Sheep (May 21st), NSA North Sheep (June 5th) and NSA South West Sheep (June 18th) for a free ‘on the spot’ analysis.
Limagrain, suppliers of Sinclair McGill and Monarch grass seed mixtures, will test fresh grass samples using its NIRS mobile testing machine and provide an immediate nutritional analysis of the crop.
Any grower bringing a sample for testing will be able to find out the key nutritional attributes of their grass such as metabolizable energy, sugar, and digestible fibre content and will also be entered in a free prize draw to win 10 acres of grass seed.
“We are drawing attention to the importance of high-quality grass seed mixtures,” says Limagrain seed specialist John Spence. “We also want to emphasise the importance of considering the nutritional qualities of the seed mixture, as well as its agronomic values.”
“The aim is to grow high energy grass,” adds Mr. Spence. “Trials have shown that proven mixtures can provide additional energy that results in improved weight gains and higher digestibility. These mixtures support improved lamb birth and weaning weights and daily live-weight gains in lambs.”
With maize crops soon to be drilled, it will be important to focus on variety choice and efficient establishment to help crops deliver.
Decisions made in the next few weeks will have a big impact on the success of maize crops, according to Tim Richmond, Maize Manager for Limagrain.
“With rebuilding forage stocks high on the list of priorities for many dairy farms, getting the optimum variety of maize off to the best possible start will be especially important,” he says. “An extra 10ha of maize grown as a one-off crop could produce around 450-550 tonnes of additional forage, helping to ensure good stocks through next winter and for 2020 buffer feeding.
“It is possible to drill maize successfully up to the end of May which means there is still time to incorporate a crop into rotations. For example, it could be drilled after an early first cut has been taken to maximise the impact on stocks.”
While many farmers have already ordered their maize seed, he says others will soon have to make the decision and advises variety choice will be particularly important if crops will be late drilled.
Whether selecting maize to drill as soon as possible or later in the spring, Mr. Richmond says it is vital the crop delivers the yield and quality of forage required to support high levels of milk production. The starting point must be selecting a variety suited to the farm and conditions and this means selecting a variety that will mature in the available Ontario Heat Units (OHU).
OHU’s are the internationally recognised system to show if maize can be grown successfully in a particular location. If there are too few heat units, crops will struggle to mature which can lead to a number of problems.
“Varieties differ in the number of OHU’s they require to mature and it is important to choose varieties that will mature within the heat units typically achieved in your area. In general, early varieties require fewer heat units to mature successfully, making them suited to larger parts of the country and ideal for later drilling,” Mr. Richmond continues.
“This will be particularly important with late drilled crops as some of the potential OHU’s will have gone before the crop emerges.”
“We recommend looking for varieties which can be grown comfortably within the average units accumulated because years vary.”
The priority must be a crop that can be harvested on time, so it is better to err on the side of caution than to stretch the point and risk delayed maturity. This will also mean a successor crop can be established more quickly and prevent bare stubbles being over-wintered.
An online tool at www.lgseeds.co.uk/heat-map provides data on heat units by postcode, to help improve the precision of maize variety selection. It shows the 10 years average heat units across the country broken down into 5km blocks, using data collated by the Met Office. Using the online system, farmers can more accurately manage the risk when choosing varieties.
He says varieties including Glory, Activate, Trooper, Prospect, and Emblem are suited to later drilling and will all deliver good yields of high-quality forage, even in a shortened growing season.
Mr. Richmond advises selecting varieties with good early vigour too, saying a strong, vigorous plant will establish quickly the essential root system and leaf canopy, maximising photosynthesis and suppressing weeds.
“The key to a good crop, irrespective of the variety, is ensuring good establishment to exploit the potential for early vigour,” Mr. Richmond comments. “Management must be focussed on achieving good germination and getting the crop away to a strong start. All varieties have a period of around 90-100 days between germination and flowering. It is during this time that the plant puts on all its vegetative growth, so it needs to be as vigorous and healthy as possible.
“Once the plant has flowered, it stops creating vegetative material and solely develops the cob. As the vegetative portion of the plant provides half the energy of the eventual crop, it is important to maximise this growth, especially if the variety has high digestible Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF) which means more of this energy will be utilised when fed.
“What you have to avoid is the plant germinating and then sulking because of a poor seedbed or low soil temperatures. All this does is create a period in the crucial phase between germination and flowering when the opportunity for vegetative growth is lost.”
Mr. Richmond advises ensuring fields for maize are not suffering from compaction, explaining that as maize is a deep-rooted plant, any compaction will reduce the plants’ ability to reach water and nutrients which can stress the crop, delaying maturing and reducing yield while also stunting cob size.
He advises leaving final seedbed preparation when the top 5-10cm is worked to a fine tilth, until immediately prior to drilling, to preserve soil moisture.
“While soil moisture is important for germination, with maize, the key measurement is soil temperature. Cold soils are the enemy of a strong establishment. Avoid drilling until soil temperatures have achieved a minimum of 10°C and have been rising for at least four days. This gives a safety buffer in case soil temperatures drop back a bit, which can happen. For heavier soils, waiting for soils to warm up is even more critical. I would advise buying a soil thermometer so you can accurately assess what is happening.”
He says drilling into colder soils just reduces the extent and rate of germination. If in doubt – delay drilling, as the few days apparently lost will soon be recovered if plants get away quicker. Late frosts and heavy rain will both drop soil temperature so keep an eye on the weather and hold back from drilling if a cold or wet spell is forecast.
He advises checking whether seed supplied has been treated with Mesurol. This widely used and effective seed treatment is being phased out this year, so some varieties may be untreated. However, the treated seed will be available from LG Seeds throughout the spring.
“Mesurol is a very effective bird deterrent, so if the seed has not been treated it may be advisable to drill slightly deeper to reduce bird damage. On light soils in warm conditions, it may be possible to go as low as 10cm, but on heavier soil seed will struggle to emerge, so sowing should be to a maximum depth of 7cm. As long as the seedbed is well-prepared and warm enough, this will not impact on germination.
“Drilling early varieties into warm soils will ensure they have the best chance of getting away strongly, maximising vegetative growth and helping ensure a good yield of quality forage to help rebuild stocks,” Mr. Richmond concludes.
As a result, we have seen very little Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle (CSFB) damage – it could be third time lucky for us with this crop. We are generally pleased with how our crops are doing, although it’s about now that we wish we had grown more fodder turnip, as fodder crop prices go through the roof. Our local farmer group has been active, as we share thoughts and ideas on how we are going to continue without the use of Redigo Deter seed dressing, and face the loss of many of our commonly used triazole fungicides over the next few years, which will make disease control in grass particularly challenging. We are working with ADAS to look at possible options based on a scientific process. We hope that this will provide us with some good reasons behind alternatives – rather than just taking a scattergun approach, based on hearsay and whims. Another area we hope to gain a better understanding of is how to build yield in a grass crop – one of the challenges in growing grass is how to even out tillering, for easier management. One of the farmer group members is also looking at improving yield mapping of grass. Anything that will help us manage and grow grass as we do for cereals, is a step in the right direction.”
Q. What is BYDV and what are its effects on winter barley?
Limagrain is inviting farmers to bring fresh grass samples to their stand at NSA Welsh Sheep (May 21st), NSA North Sheep (June 5th) and NSA South West Sheep (June 18th) for a free ‘on the spot’ analysis.
