The combination of high grain prices, high fertiliser costs and high fuel costs means there is now a bigger financial risk to growing crops, said Aberdeenshire arable farm manager, Sandy Norrie – which means easy to grow and consistent performance from varieties are key areas of consideration.

As arable manager at AJ Duncan Farms, Muirden, Turriff, Mr Norrie is responsible for more than 2500 ha of combinable crops over 25 farms.

Cropping last season comprised 830 ha of winter barley, 647 ha of winter wheat, 486 ha of winter oilseed rape, 364 ha of spring barley and 243 ha of winter oats. For the first time last year, 26 ha of spring beans were also tried, as a potential alternative protein source to soya for the business’ 650,000 laying hens.

Like many farmers, Mr Norrie faced a bigger fertiliser bill this season than last year. This is despite applications of hen muck helping to ease granular fertiliser requirements. In addition, he said his diesel costs had doubled, compared with where they have traditionally been.

“Harvest 2022 was the year to make money,” said Mr Norrie. “But harvest 2023 may be back on margins.

“We have good fertility in the ground from the hen muck, which is a great help at the moment, and soil phosphate and potash levels are also high. However, high costs increase the argument for growing varieties that are consistent,” he added.

By growing a consistent-performing variety, which delivers reliable yields and reliably meets grain quality specifications, Mr Norrie said it made crop budgeting easier. Despite increased growing costs, he said the farm’s calculations still revealed that crop margins stack up.

Spring crops are the next planting operations on the agenda and for the last four years all the business’ spring barley fields have been sown with the variety Laureate – a trend that is continuing in 2023.

“This will be the fifth season we’ve grown all Laureate and every year our spring barley yield in tonnes per acre has started with a 3 (7.4 t/ha). This peaked in 2022 at 3.73 t/ac (9.22 t/ha), although one field on beautiful land did 4 t/ac (9.89 t/ha).

“It’s consistency is the big reason why we grow Laureate. We must have sold about 400 articulated lorry loads of it off the farm over the years and I can count on one hand the number of rejections and deductions. It’s been consistently accepted for quality.

“With Laureate we also know what to look out for – it’s not particularly needy on inputs.”

Usually, 130-140 kg/ha of nitrogen are applied to the crop in total – taking into account bagged nitrogen and fertility provided by the hen muck. Last season, he said the hen muck allowed the bagged NPK dose in spring barley to be reduced by a fifth.

At harvest, grain N contents were between 1.2 and 1.4%, versus a target of less than 1.6%. “Specific weight last year was up to 72 kg/hl,” added Mr Norrie, “which was our highest quality yet. We’ve never had a spring barley specific weight issue."

Typically, a pre-emergence herbicide is applied for a general weed tidy-up in the spring barley, with Hallmark Zeon applied against aphids as needed, as well as Moddus plant growth regulator at T1 and a two-spray fungicide programme at T1 and T2.

“Mildew is our main disease problem. That is another reason we grow Laureate – it’s easy to manage. We also grow some Laureate for C1 seed – about 30 ha every year.”

For the future, Mr Norrie says he sees nothing currently in the spring barley variety pipeline to tempt him to switch. “While we’re still getting the yield, I don’t see a need to change. Laureate has looked after us so well.

“With the scale of the operation we have, if we have one variety that is consistent it’s also far easier to manage than growing multiple varieties – especially when it comes to storage and loading lorries.”