BAD TIME FOR BARLEY CROP

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33786, 7 March 1975, Page 6

BAD TIME FOR BARLEY CROP

This has been a had been lovely bai>' ey most disappointing sea- ec %d thVoS son for barley. uation. !l1 ’

The general manager of the Canterbury Malting Companv. Mr H. P. Kearnev. said this week that the barley crop had been most disappointing from a J ield point of view, in that only with a few exceptions screenings had been very much higher than normal, and even where the crop had been irrigated high temperatures about Christmas and New Year seemed to have just burnt them off at the head so that they did not fill.

Because of thunderstorms in some areas, there

Mr Kearney said that recently they had just been getting into good qualitv barley. although yields were still not good, ’when ram set in about two weeks ago and little barlev had been harvested since It was thought that these crops had not stooled out at any stage so that there was not a high proportion of seed heads. Now Mr Kearney said that late harvested crops were affected with second growth and most lines currently being harvested were showing sprout and there had been cases of sprout damage causing a sprout count of more than 30 per cent. Where farmers harvested grain with a high moisture content, he said that this should not be stored for any length of time — for not more than two weeks And where such grain was dried, temperatures should not be allowed to rise above 49 degrees Celsius or 120 degrees Fahrenheit and there should be an ample flow of air. Overheating could be damaging to the embryo. It would be another 10 to 14 days before the final results of the harvest would be known, said Mr Kearney, but there was no question that the amount of barley harvested was substantially below’ what had been thought to be there initially.

After a wet winter. Mr Kearney said that there had been a rush to prepare seed beds in the spring, and crops had only been sown when dry weather set in — there had been no rain in November and December — and then great heat about Christmas and New Year.