In a season characterised by wet weather and high disease pressure, one East Lothian grower says his LG Caravelle winter barley has remained “spotless” and delivered the yields it ‘promised.’
This is the first time the variety, LG Caravelle has been grown on the Baro Farm, just outside Haddington, with yields ranging from 8.9 t/ha to 10.8 t/ha, across 4 fields.
James McLaughlin
Farm manager James McLaughlin, is delighted with the performance of the variety, pointing out that not only has it yielded very well, it has also made the specification for pearling and will be bought by local merchants, Silvery Tweed, in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Cereals managing director for Silvery Tweed, Bob Gladstone says: “LG Caravelle performs well in our plant, producing a high-quality pearled barley for our customers within the UK food and drink sector. The consistent high pearling yield delivered by LG Caravelle, allows us to produce a competitively priced product for our customers.”
“Considering we have had what is being cited as the wettest winter in 25 years, this is an impressive performance from the variety,” he says.
The barley, at the 450 ha farm, forms part of a rotation centred around combinable winter crops, oilseed rape and spring oats. “We like to grow winter barley mainly because it’s harvested earlier, which gives us a good window of opportunity to establish following wheat crops.”
Mr McLaughlin says the LG Caravelle sown in mid-September, established quickly and was just emerging as the weather broke later that month, but showed excellent vigour, despite saturated soils and tough growing conditions.
“We’ve barely lost anything, which is amazing compared with what some have faced. In fact, the variety tillered really well.”
Staying ‘spotless’
Importantly, Mr McLaughlin says all of his LG Caravelle has remained “spotlessly clean”, despite very high disease pressure throughout this season.
“With winter barley varieties in the past, we’ve often found disease will get in during the winter and early spring, then never really seem to go away.”
The fact crops have stayed so clean is testament to LG Caravelle’s strong genetics, supported with well-timed fungicide applications. These included: T1 Folpet + Bixafen+Prothioconazole+Spiroxamine at T1, followed by Folpet + Prothioconazole + Pyraclostrobin at T2.
“The crop ripened off evenly – we didn’t need to burn it off, which is a nice saving to make on glyphosate, and it was combined on 1 August which is fairly standard for us,” he says.
Mr McLaughlin confirms that on the back of the very pleasing performance of the variety, all of the 2025 winter barley crop will be put down to LG Caravelle.
James McLaughlin tried LG Caravelle on the advice of Douglas Bonn of Nickerson Seeds, who sees the variety as possessing all the key characteristics for a winter barley.
”In my opinion, LG Caravelle is the stand out winter barley to grow, as the highest yielding two-row winter barley for the second year running, since joining the AHDB Recommended List in 2023.
“Offering UK yields of 105.6%, LG Caravelle continues to dispel any misconception that two-row barleys are lower yielding than hybrids. The variety certainly competes with the best yielding hybrid barleys,” he says.
“LG Caravelle’s high yields are backed up by an excellent disease profile, reflected in its superb untreated performance. It is early maturing with stiff straw and good brackling resistance.
“LG Caravelle also offers an exceptionally high specific weight for a winter barley, of 71.4 kg/hl, combined with low screenings %.”
About The Author
Ron Granger
Arable Technical Manager
