100-day spring barley being grown in Co Louth

An area of spring barley at the Drummonds trial site garnered a lot of interest from growers.

It was noticeable as it had six rows of grains, not something we associate with spring barley crops.

On further inspection, it was labelled “100-day spring barley”, meaning it goes through its lifecycle in about 100 days.

Managing director of Drummonds Paul Ward said: “It’s a six-row variety of spring barley, which is very unusual. It grows very rapidly.

"From planting to harvesting in 100 days will mean that it will find a slot that other barleys mightn’t be able to find. So, you might put it in after a late-harvested crop of veg.”

Paul added that some growers were already talking about the possibility of planting it after winter barley for whole crop in September if it was successful on the Drummonds trial site.

He said that’s what the trial site is all about, trying new things and innovating. The variety comes from Nordic Seeds and is bred for the Baltics states, where the growing season is much shorter.