By Eoin Lyons, Teagasc/Boortmalt joint programme advisor

For the past number of years, small areas of the most free-draining malting barley land have been drilled with what is often referred to as winter malting barley.

Although these crops are drilled in the autumn and managed similarly to winter barley crops, they are in fact a spring barley variety – such as Planet or Laureate – which has been drilled in the autumn.

The advantage of this is that the probability of achieving distilling grade with this barley is greater due to the long growing season when compared to a spring variety drilled in the spring.

There are of course obvious disadvantages to sowing these crops, with frost damage, poor tillering and high disease pressure all common threats. It is for this reason, therefore, that drilling these crops has been confined to a very small area.

Spring barley, drilled in the autumn, has been popular for a number of years with growers on free draining soils

Last season, in order to give a more reliable winter malting barley option to its growers, Boortmalt investigated the possibility of growing a true winter malting barley for brewing.

Two varieties were chosen, Pixel (6-row) and Craft (2-row), to be grown on a trial basis on farms across the southeast.

The trial was set up to firstly assess the agronomic performance of the varieties and furthermore to examine the malting characteristics of the grain during the malting process. Approximately 250ac of both varieties were drilled into perfect seedbeds.

Lessons from last year

Craft

The variety Craft has been grown in the UK for a number of years as a winter malt. This is the reason that it was an automatic choice for consideration in Ireland.

Seedbed conditions for drilling last autumn (2018) were perfect and most crops of Craft benefited from this, with plant counts commonly exceeding 300 plants/m². The variety itself has an all-round good disease profile and because of this a standard disease programme was followed with little or no issues arising.

Craft winter malting barley can be recognised by its distinctive purple awns

The main challenge last season was deciding on the total nitrogen (N) rate to apply to maximise yield and maintain an acceptable protein level.

Given that this was the first year trialing the crop in Ireland, there was limited data to draw on to decide on an optimum N rate.

Previous research on N rate on winter feed barley

Research examining protein levels in winter barley had been carried out in Teagasc Oak Park in previous years.

The trial work showed that applying 130-140 units/ac should be sufficient to maintain protein levels below 10.8 without significantly compromising yield.

However, this work was carried out on winter feed barley varieties, as no winter malt was available at the time. The final yield of most crops ranged from 3.6t/ac to 4.2t/ac with protein levels ranging from 9.5% to 10.6%.

Pixel

Much the same as Craft, Pixel got off to an excellent start with high plant counts recorded. The same concern arose with the variety in relation to total N use with 140 units/ac being decided as an adequate rate.

The disease package of the variety was good last season with the exception of Ramularia which was an issue. Pixel as a variety has shown to be susceptible to Ramularia.

The yield from Pixel was exceptional last year, however, Ramularia was a concern

However, control with the crops on the ground was excellent, provided a well-timed application of chlorothalonil was carried out.

Once chlorothalonil use is no longer allowed the control of Ramularia in Pixel will be considerably harder.

The protein content of most Pixel crops came in very low which may have been aided by the dilution factor caused by its exceptional yield with 4-4.5t/ac yields common and some even higher.

The results of the malting quality of the grain from the 2019 harvest will not be known until all the grain has been malted. However, a small quantity of each variety has been micro-malted and initial results suggest that quality and malting ability is good.

2020 Season

The aim for the 2020 season was to increase the area of both Craft and Pixel, with 300t of Craft and 100t of Pixel seed made available to growers. As with the majority of winter crops, the actual quantity of seed drilled is far lower than this.

Crops of Craft and Pixel that have been drilled are extremely variable in their establishment. Plant counts range from 100plants/m² or below to 420 plants/m². However, establishment percentage rates remain average.

Establishment rate trial – one observation from last year’s crops of Craft was that the numbers of ears/m² at harvest time were slightly below the target level of 1,000ears/m².

In order to try and increase ear numbers, an establishment rate trial was implemented on two farms in the south east.

The trial consists of drilling three different seeding rates within the field and then assessing the plant numbers, tiller numbers and ear numbers during the growing season.

The first rate drilled was determined using the seeding rate formula with the following two rates consisting of increasing this figure by 10% and 20% respectively. The plant counts from each of the trial sites can be seen in the table below.

As expected, by increasing seed rate, plant numbers have also increased which should in turn promote more shoots and ears which could lead to a yield increase.

Click on the image below to enlarge and see seeding rate information.

The introduction of true winter malting barley is a positive for many growers as it opens up more opportunities and cropping choice.

Spring malting barley remains the main priority

However, spring malting barley will remain the main priority for Boortmalt going forward.

With the low level of winter crops that have been drilled this year and limited crop options for spring drilling, spring malting barley will be an attractive crop for spring sowing and could leave an attractive margin for harvest 2020.

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