Early drilling is the key for the YEN gold medal spring barley crop

The award for the highest spring barley yield at the 2026 Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) awards was for a crop yielding 10.39t/ha grown by Ben Abell, head of agronomy at Dyson Farming. The effects of the dry spring and summer last year were mitigated by planting the crop in November, a factor Ben considers critical to the crop’s success.

The marketing-leading spring barley variety, Laureate, was sown immediately after the maize harvest in a favourable weather window in November 2024. Ben says the farm aims to so

w its spring barley from November to March, depending on when root crops are lifted, and conditions are favourable. “We have had success in YEN before, and it has always been the early drilled spring barley,” he adds.

It was sown at 450 seeds/m2, which is towards the top end of their usual seed rates. This was to account for the field’s heavier soil, which can compromise establishment.

The early drilling increased the disease risk, with some Rhynchosporium appearing in early spring, which they controlled with an early prothioconazole application. Miravis (pydiflumetofen) was used as the primary spray timing due to its Ramularia efficacy.

Nutrition was another key focus of Ben’s. A programme of liquid nutrition was applied in early spring to encourage rooting, a factor that would have helped greatly in the dry conditions to follow. Then the usual programme of 150kg/ha of nitrogen was applied to the crop.

The Laureate achieved the malting specification with a grain nitrogen level of 1.5%, safely below the threshold. The high yield helped to dilute the nitrogen across a higher volume of grain, which Ben thinks helped.

“Our barley quality was good across the board last year,” says Ben. “Bushell weights were good, especially considering the weather. The sunshine levels were excellent; if we had a bit more rain, then it could have been a record year for us.

“Instead, spring barley yields last year for us were in line with our long-term average. The higher yields on the more bodied land and early drillings were offset by the crops sown on light land, which struggled to tiller in the dry.”