One of the first crops of the six row BYDV tolerant winter barley, Rafaela, has been harvested in Cornwall with very pleasing results.
The six ha field, that followed spring oats, was harvested on 9 July at 4.50pm at Howton Farm in Saltash, Cornwall and yielded 8.15t/ha and a specific weight of 66kg/hl.
Grower John Moss believes that the BYDV tolerance definitely kicked in and protected yields. “We thought it would be worth trying Rafaela as we are in a BYDV hot spot - and despite the high BYDV pressure it’s proved its worth - so we will definitely be putting some more in next year.
“It’s been a super looking crop all the way through, tall and stood well, although we didn’t get as much straw off it as we would have liked”, he said.
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