Carse Hall Farm is located on the shores of Lough Foyle, close to Limavady. Brothers Robert and Tom Craig run the farm in partnership, working on 500 acres of land which is split into 250 acres of grassland and 250 acres of cereals.

The Craig brothers are extremely focused on sustainable farming and conscious about farming in an environmentally friendly way, but are still able to maintain output comparable to more intensive production systems.

Just like the dairying side of things, the cereal enterprise is extremely well managed. Attention to detail is where the biggest gains are to be made in terms of grain yields.

Background

The cereal enterprise is split with 150 acres of winter barley, along with 80 acres of spring barley and 20 acres of lucerne as a crop break.

Cereals are grown across four land blocks. The largest and most productive land parcel is the home farm where grain yields are usually 0.5t per acre higher than on the out farms. That is due in part to higher seed germination rates on the home farm at 90% or better, compared with 70% or better on outfarms.

The arable and dairy units across the whole farm are closely integrated and both provide a good balance to the entire farming operation in terms of land use, land management, output, cashflow and time management.

Homegrown grain is mostly used within the 220-cow dairy herd, either as dried grain or whole crop forage. Straw is also used for feeding and bedding.

Organic waste produced on farm is recycled as a fertiliser for cereals, helping to reduce the amount of purchased fertilisers. In the past year, purchased phosphate and potash fertiliser has reduced by 50% alone, with more targeted use of slurry, farmyard manure (FYM) and digestate from local anaerobic digesters.

Seed grain

Of the 150 acres of winter barley grown on the farm, it is split into 50 acres of seed barley, 50 acres of feed barley dried to 14% moisture on farm, and 50 acres of whole crop barley ensiled in June, along with second-cut silage.

The farm has grown seed barley on contract for Morton seeds over the past 18 years.

Producing seed barley does require some added management input. Crops must be grown from certified seed and walked twice per year. Robert walks the crops in early and late June, during which he hand-rogues any weeds present, which is a time-consuming process.

To reduce the level of seed contamination from other grains, Robert only grows seed barley straight after grass to ensure a clean seed bed.

It is also the reason that he only grows barley, to reduce the chance of wheat and oats regrowing in a subsequent seed crop.

Ethos

The core ethos within the entire farm business is to add value to sales wherever possible. It is the main reason that seed barley is produced. Six-row barley has also been grown in the past to add value with varying success.

“Seed barley is worth around an extra £18/acre over conventional grain, but there are added costs, as the purchase price of the seed is higher, plus you must factor in your own time to walk the crop and rogue weeds,” says Robert.

Feed barley

Both spring and winter barley are used as feed for the dairy herd.

This year, one 30ac field of Cassia winter barley was under different management. Farmyard manure was spread as the source of phosphorus and potassium in February at 12t/acre, which saved approximately £39/acre in purchased fertiliser costs.

According to Robert, the crop was much slower to develop and grain fill was also slower compared with other crops that received both slurry and nitrogen.

With a 10m spreading width, there was additional crop damage from the dung spreader compared with the 20m spreading width of the fertiliser spreader.

But within the past month, the crop has filled out with pickle size increasing significantly.

The true picture will be known at harvest.

Next year, the trial will be adapted to a mix of FYM and slurry to give a more readily available nitrogen source for early season growth.

Yields

All crops are grown to target 11t/ha (4.5t/acre). The five-year average for winter barley on farm is 4.25t/acre with spring grain pushing 2.5t/acre.

During the last three years, weather has been challenging, and yields have dropped to 3.5t/acre for some winter crops.

Spring grains for seed are grown in rotation after potatoes on out farms as this regime suits prevailing soil type. With yields of 2.5t/acre for spring barley and a higher price premium over winter grain, it provides the same return as winter crops, which have usually struggled to surpass 3t/acre on the same land.

Planting

Target planting date for winter grain is 15 September for optimum yield, but this can run into October if weather allows.

Glyphosate is only used on-farm before planting to kill off weed grasses before ploughing. No glyphosate is used before grain harvest.

FYM is ploughed into the ground and seed is drilled using a one pass system at the rate of 320 to 380 seeds/m2.

Herbicides are used post emergence to control weeds at seedling stage. There is a strong environmental awareness on the farm, with the use of chemical sprays kept to a minimum.

Fungicides are used sparingly, with Robert preferring to manage crop health through best practice at planting, post-emergence, fertiliser timing, crop rotation and control of weeds.

Barley is typically grown with 160 units/acre of nitrogen applied in three dressings. Chicken litter is not used due to the risk from botulism.

Instead, there is sufficient FYM produced from the dairy cows and followers. The high yielding cow group are bedded on straw and use three large 8x3x3 bales per day during housing and around 1,500 bales per year.

High-yielding cows are bedded to reduce the risk of injury of slipping on solid concrete floors. Yields increased by two litres/day when cows moved on to straw-bedding from cubicles.

Soil maintenance

Since 2003, there has been a concentrated effort to improve soil nutrition by using more FYM over slurry. It has taken almost 15 years, but phosphate (P) index has increased from 0 to 1+ with potash (K) levels rising to 2- across the farm.

Soil compaction is avoided at all costs. Potatoes are no longer grown as a break crop on the home farm, or maize, as late harvesting has led to soil compaction in the past. Lucerne is now grown as a break crop because it fixes nitrogen and offers three cuts of high protein forage for cows.

Slurry is applied with an umbilical system that uses two outlets and can spread up to 20m in band width. Tram lines are also set to 20 meters to reduce the amount of travelling on crops.