January 14th 2009

TWO-ROW WINTER BARLEY GIVES IMPROVED FEED PERFORMANCE

Retriever winter barley, which is a two row variety with a similar yield to six rows, is proving that its HGCA Recommended List yield performance is matched by on-farm feeding results.
Alastair Moore of seed specialists Nickerson Direct points out:  "Two-row barleys like Retriever tend to produce rounder seeds with higher starch and lower fibre content than six-row barley.  Hence two-rows will usually produce better quality feed than six-rows. In fact, a Canadian swine (pig) feeding trial showed that, overall, two-row barley had 4.6% better feed conversion than six-row barley."
John Pearson of father and son team David and John Pearson, who farm 600 acres at Wentworth, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, agrees:  "The Retriever we grew for 2008 harvest yielded close to 4t/ha, with lovely yellow corn as it came off the combine.  Our barley is used on-farm for our 300-strong beef fattening herd and our 1000 pigs. The livestock are doing extremely well on the Retriever - far better than with the older varieties we used to grow.  We are very pleased with our choice."
In addition to Retriever's feed performance, Alastair Moore underlined the agronomic benefits of the variety:  "Retriever is a good choice as a feed barley for our farmer customers.  It has very high treated yield that is competitive with the non-hybrid six-row varieties when fungicide treated, no major agronomic weaknesses, short straw, similar lodging resistance to Cannock, and a broad foliar disease resistance spectrum - including resistance to the commonly occurring strains of Barley Mosaic Virus."



Limagrain UK Ltd, Rothwell, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, LN7 6DT    Tel: 01472 371471