FARMERS with malt barley are looking at the option of windrowing crops to ensure an even ripening following a cool spring that has led to slow maturation of crops.
However, industry experts have said while it can be a valuable technique in certain cases, it is not necessarily the best solution to improving barley harvestability caused by either lodging or uneven maturation.
Claire Browne, Birchip Cropping Group research manager, said for growers producing feed barley, desiccation of the crop with glyphosate may achieve the same result.
“You cannot treat malt lines with glyphosate, but if it is either a feed line or a paddock unlikely to make malt, crop-topping is an option,” Ms Browne said.
“There have been a lot of barley crops that have lodged this season with the wet and the rain, but windrowing is unlikely to be the answer for these crops.”
“Windrowing is more likely to be of use for growers with crops at risk of head loss, such as the Scope CL variety which can drop heads in windy conditions.”
Cutting barley has also been raised as an answer to the uneven maturation caused by regrowth due to tillers reshooting off the bottom of plants.
However, Dodgshun Medlin, Swan Hill, agronomist Matt Witney said there were some concerns about quality issues when doing this.
“There have been some issues with small grain out of the green heads after windrowing leading to a downgrading so that is something growers have to be wary of.”
Simon Craig, farm consultant with Farm 360 which operates in the northern Mallee in Victoria, said farmers had to weigh up what advantage they were getting from windrowing.
“It can help with harvest flow if it allows growers to get going on barley before other crops are ready, but equally it is another operation and another cost of $30-35 a hectare and you also need a pick-up front on the harvester, which may be another cost.”
“Farmers need to think whether they will get a return from this cost, which I think will mainly come from stopping yield losses due to head loss.”
BCG field work found yield losses of 0.2 to 0.3 tonnes to the hectare would be required for the windrowing to be economic.
Ms Browne said some farmers in the Birchip district had made the decision to windrow and she said she thought there would likely be interest in areas where harvest is likely to kick off later.
Mr Witney said many central Mallee farmers were tending to treat crops with a desiccant rather than windrow.
“Generally they either have feed varieties or feel they are unlikely to get malt quality grain – there has been a bit of black tipping on early barley pushing it into feed quality – although yield has helped make up for that.”