S.I. barley growers take top places

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 8

S.I. barley growers take top places

South Island growers took seven out of the first 10 placings in Ammo-Phos N.Z., Ltd’s, national barley grower of the year contest, the results of which were announced at a function in Christchurch last week.

The winner was, a MidCanterbury farmer, Mr D. H. Read, who has been farming in the Flemington district, about 11km from Ashburton, for about 33 years. He achieved his highest barley yield to win the competition with a plot of about two hectares or five acres of Mata grown under contract for the Canterbury (N.Z.) Malting Company yielding 7.674 tonnes to the ha or 136.935 bushels to the acre. The Reads farm about 400 ha in five blocks in the district —Mr Read and a

son, Mark, each farm a part of the area and part is also in a company farm. The land is heavy cropping soil so it is not exactly surprising that it performed well last season and Mr Read says that everything went in favour of the crop. The Reads’ is a totally cropping enterprise, with about the total area, apart from that under fallow, being harvested. The header covers about 360 ha an-

nually harvesting wheat, tick beans, grass seed and white and red clover and

of course barley, of which there was about lOOha last

season. These are the main crops. Last season the crop that produced the barley that won the national

competition was sow t in early October on the company part of the property, where it followed a crop of choumoellier taken

for seed after a fallowTwo and a half bushels of seed were sown to the acre together with 2001 b of Ammo-Phos to the acre at the same time — this is a pelletised fertiliser containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and it is a requirement of the competition that it should be used. The Reads are now contemplating using it again. Mr Read recalls that it was' about November, sometime after sowing, when they were asked if they would enter the competition and for the first time they did.

An area of two hectares or five acres was then surveyed off by professional surveyors and pegged and the crop was subsequently' harvested off that area under supervision late in February. Unsettled weather thereafter, however, was hard on crops.

Mr Read said this week he did not think that they stood a chance at all of. winning the competition. ’*l thought that the North Island would pull it off.” Mata barley was incidentally bred by the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln. It is described as a high consistent yielder in Canterbury and North Otago and reasonably good in the North Island. It is resistant to scald and has moderately strong straw and

is resistant to neck break. It has a low percentage of screenings, plump grain and is suitable for malting.

The runner-up in the contest was S. F. and P. S. Addis, of Waipawa, whose Georgie barley yielded 7.636 tonnes per ha or 136.257 bushels per acre, and the Telford Farm Training Institute, of Balclutha, finished third with their Universe barley yielding 7.604 tonnes to the ha or 135.686 bushels to the acre. Mr K. L. Barrowman,

marketing and operations

manager of Ammo-Phos, reported that 24 South Island plots in the contest averaged 6.127 tonnes to the ha or 109.33 bushels to the acre, while the 72 North Island entries averaged 5.251 tonnes to the ha or 93.699 bushels to the acre. As well as a trophy and miniature, Mr Read received $3OO, while prizes of $2OO and $lOO went to the second and third place getters.

Regional awards were also made in seven districts over the country, in-

cluding two in the South Island — the northern re-

gion being from Ashburton northwards and the southern from Timaru southwards. Mr Read won the north-

ern region with G. Prebble, of Ashburton, being second with a yield of 7.409 tonnes to the ha with Magnum, and P. G.

Rodgerson, of Blenheim, third with the same variety yielding 7:255 tonnes per ha. In the southern region -Telford Farm Training Institute were the winners with Grange Farm, of Gore, second with Georgie yielding 7.519 tonnes to the ha, and Kinesdowne Farm, of Clydevale, third

with Universe yielding 7.052 tonnes per ha"

The prize winners at refional level received $2OO, 100 and $5O respectively.

The managing director of the company, Mr N. R. S. Palmer, announced that it planned to give an additional $5OO to the grower reaching 150 bushels to the acre and an extra $lOOO to the one producing 200 bushels — in the event of more than one grower reaching these targets, the bonus would go

to the farmer with the highest yield. And Mr Palmer also announced that the company would be introducing a wheat grower of the year award, which would initially be only in the South Island.

The guest speaker was the chairman of the Dominion agriculture section of Federated Farmers, Mr N. Q. Wright,