EURO-BARLEY BOOSTS LATE BEET

Spring malting barley has given Chris and Ian Cockayne the rotational leeway to boost sugar beet yields reliably every season through ‘just-in-time’ harvesting on their family’s Top Brackendale Farm, Cropwell Butler in Nottinghamshire. And with the new Euro-barley they are now growing they think they have the ideal solution to all-rounded added value.

The beet harvesting approach suggested by British Sugar has proved highly successful in allowing the Cockaynes to meet their A and B quota from as few acres as possible. However, it has meant that some of the crop is lifted too late to guarantee a worthwhile performance from late winter wheat sowings; especially with the increasingly common wet winters they are experiencing these days, not to mention depressed prices.

“With poor beet prices too it’s vital we meet our 3000t quota from the fewest possible acres,” said Chris Cockayne. “In recent years our sugar adjusted yields have averaged around 75t/ha (30t/acre) so 59ha (145 acres) have been sufficient to provide us some leeway as insurance against a poor season. This leaves us 265 ha (650 acres) or so for combinable crops and set aside.

“We’ve never liked harvesting our crop too soon as root weights are lower and a lot of sugar can be leached out in the clamp. By delaying the beet harvest by two months we can, in a good year, increase yields by 3-5t/acre (7.5-12 t/ha). And I’m convinced that in some seasons as much as 3% of our sugar content goes down the drain. It is a gamble leaving beet in the ground until mid-winter as there’s a chance they may get frosted in. But this is one gamble we are prepared to take with part of our crop.”

In the past, winter wheat used to follow most of the beet grown at Top Brackendale. Some wheat may still be drilled after the earliest liftings if conditions are suitable. But an adequate seed-bed was never easy to prepare and the late-sown crop always seemed to struggle to establish. So the Cockaynes decided to switch to a spring cereal, choosing barley as the only viable option and going for the greatest added value.

“We’re happy growing spring barley as long as there’s a reliable value-added market to aim at,” explained Chris. “We grow for seed first and foremost. But we need a worthwhile back-up position in case it’s not all needed. That’s why we always grow a good malting variety.”

Optic had previously been the family’s variety of choice but after a poor performance in 2001 as a result of a build-up in disease pressures they decided it was time for a change, choosing Prestige for its combination of yield, marketability and agronomics.

“We were impressed by the Prestige’s credentials as a Eurobarley,” pointed out Ian. “It was great to know it was sought after by European maltsters for lager brewing, and that it was already a Carlsberg preferred variety.

“We were also attracted by a yield promise which we certainly realised last year. We normally expect to combine around 3 t/acre (7.4 t/ha) from Optic, and have achieved 3.25t (8t/ha) in a good year. Prestige, however, gave us at least 3.5t/acre (8.6 t/ha) in 2002.

Drilled in early March, the variety’s early maturity and harvestability proved a value bonus for the Cockaynes. They combined it ahead of their wheat in the last few days of July and early August. And it stood well for the combine with relatively little straw to thresh.

“We were delighted with the Prestige,” concluded Chris. “The grain coming off the combine was big, bold, bright, beautiful and clean as a whistle. It was eminently saleable and, as such, is proving to be the ideal follow-on from our late harvested beet. We’ll certainly be growing it again this season.”