United Kingdom
October 28, 2022
RAGT’s phenomenally successful spring barley RGT Planet continues to be a firm favourite among our Growers Club members.
The variety has earned a reputation of excellent consistency among growers and maltsters since it first appeared on the Recommended List in 2015, thanks to its strong agronomics and excellent grain quality, says RAGT’s arable crops manager Tom Dummett.
“RGT Planet is very vigorous, putting down strong roots and tillering profusely. It has good resistance to rhynchosporium and is excellent on ramularia.
“Grain quality is as important as yield, and the variety produces an excellent sample, helped by its reluctance to deteriorate in the field, protecting specific weight and germination.”
RGT Planet has become a firm favourite within the brewing supply chain and has also taken a significant share of the feed barley market, producing plenty of valuable straw into the bargain, adds Tom.
Cambridgeshire Farmer Sam Morris who grows combinable crops across 750ha of heavy clay from Top Farm, Croydon, has sown RGT Planet for the past three springs.
“We went into barley purely to help keep blackgrass in check, but it just seems to perform really well on this farm. We use it as the first crop in a double spring break, following it with beans. Barley easy to control in the beans, and the beans make a great entry for first wheat.
“This system also gives us two chances to kill off the blackgrass, and Planet itself is pretty competitive. We drill early to get it up and away, and we combine it as early as we can, which helps spread the harvest. It’s a cheap crop to grow, and a valuable part of our farming strategy.”
Sam grew 55ha of the variety last season, and was impressed with the result despite the dry conditions. “We drilled the crop in February and cut it on the 25 July. It yielded over 9t/ha – it’s now done that over three very different years, and it’s been fairly easy to get a brewing premium. It’s a brilliant crop, cheap to grow, and I’m sold on it. You’d have to go some for me to change.”
Gavin Bowser, who looks after 1000ha of mainly arable cropping at Croft Marsh, Skegness, Lincolnshire, grew about 120ha of RGT Planet last season on silty clay loams to help control blackgrass, which is making inroads in some areas of the farm.
“We direct-drilled some Planet, min-tilled another area and ploughed and cultivated after maize in a particularly bad blackgrass area, sowing new seed. The variety does the blackgrass control job well – it’s the only crop we grow that does. We aim for a good thick crop to smother the blackgrass and to get good yields.
“We’ve been growing Planet for six years and we were pleased with it again this year. The 44ha block after maize, which was drilled on 23 March, looked exceptionally well and outperformed the other two other areas, although it needed to as it cost me twice as much to grow!”
In the end the crop averaged 8.5t/ha and all met malting specification. “That was pretty good in a year like this, especially as it doesn’t require the chemicals and fertiliser that winter wheat does.”
Matt Fuller, arable operator at Heathcote Farms, Toddington, Bedfordshire, reports another successful season with RGT Planet.
The farm has been growing the variety since harvest 2020. Most of this season’s 55ha crop was on greensand. Despite weeks of dry weather it yielded 7.62t/ha and made full specification – 1.75% nitrogen, 98% germination, 70.6 specific weight and 0.6% screenings.
“With malting premiums at £90/t there should be a nice margin on the crop this year,” says Matt.
“We were very pleased with how the Planet turned out. It was drilled earlier, on 2nd and 3rd of February, because the ground conditions on the lighter land were good. Given how dry April was on that land we were glad we went ahead when we did.
“The yield was very good given the conditions. It was basically grown on sand and the crop did thin out, as it lost loads of tillers through the dry April and May. We got 30mm in June which save the last of the secondary tillers, which bumped up the yield. I think being a thinner crop also helped the quality.”
Ken Goodger’s 10ha crop of RGT Planet averaged 8.75t/ha at Pates Farm, Welney, Norfolk. “It did really well – that was an excellent yield for a spring crop this season, although we did drill it in early March on very good silty land. We have high hopes for malting potential.”
Ken, like the other growers, will be sowing RGT Planet again next spring. “We concentrate on the wheat harvest so want the barley to look after itself. It suits our fertile soils; it doesn’t brackle over or go flat so it combines well. We’re definitely having some more next year.”
RGT Planet
- · Number one brewing variety globally
- · Domestic and export premium potential
- · Proven on-farm performance
- · Consistent performer across all soil types and climates
- · Most widely grown cereal variety in the world
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