Spring barley is Ireland’s most widely grown tillage crop. Ireland’s climate and soils suits barley growth.
Barley is used to feed animals and in the production of beer and whiskey.
Spring barley is sown in the spring and harvested in the autumn.
The ground is ploughed to turn over the top 200mm depth of soil. The plough has four mouldboards that cuts and inverts four furrow slices, any weeds are buried.
A reversible plough is turned over by the tractor's hydraulics at the end of the ploughed furrows strip and the next pass is made against the previous ploughed strip.
Tilling is used to loosen the soil and prepare a fine seed bed for good seed to soil contact.
The soil needs to be dry and warm. Sowing barley seeds, the target average is 300 plants per metre square.
The seed drill machine sows the barley seeds at equal distances and depth, ensuring that the seeds are covered with soil and are safe from being eaten by birds.
The ground is rolled to provide good contact between the seed and the soil.
The soil fertility is managed by, testing the soil to ascertain what elements are lacking for optimum barley growth, spreading fertilisers to provide the missing elements. Soil samples, are taken and tested in a laboratory. A soil auger is used to take the cores. One sample is taken for each 2 to 4 hectare. One soil sample contains 20 cores that measure 100 mm. The locations where the cores were taken is recorded on a map.
Fertilisers are spread on the ground that contain mainly the following elements - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Lime is spread to adjust the ph value of the soil where necessary.
Herbicides are sprayed to kill weeds that compete with the crop for light, water and nutrients
Insecticides are sprayed to kill insects that are pests
Fungicides are sprayed to prevent diseases that reduce both yield quality and quantity.
Sound cannons driven by bottled gas are used to scare birds away.
The Combine Harvester cuts the mature barley plants at ground level and separates the grain from the straw. The grain is loaded into trailers and transported from the field to a farm yard or a grain mill. The average yield per hectare is about 6 tonnes.
The straw is baled and used mainly for bedding. Barley straw can be fed to animals but has a low feeding value.
At the mill the grain is tested, cleaned to remove any dust and is stored in silos prior to processing. The grain mill breaks down the grain into small pieces that animals can eat and digest.
Barley grain is used primarily as an energy and protein source in animal feeds.
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