Big N.I. barley grower

Press, 4 December 1981, Page 18

Big N.I. barley grower

Can any of our Canterbury grain growers beat this one? Mr T. M. (Max) GordonGiassford, of Waituna West, about 22 kilometres north of Feilding, has about 640 hectares or 1600 acres under barley this year. A regular cropping farmer, he has about 600 hectares of land and also leases more country. Last year he had about 580 hectares in crop but then most of it was wheat and it averaged two tonnes to the acre and yielded up to three tonnes. It was a good year for wheat, he said this week, but

they had decided to change to barley with fears about the possible effect of stripe rust on wheat being one of the factors involved. The barley is all for malting and is made up of the varieties Zephyr, Triumph and Mata. Sowing started about October 14. It is looking well at the moment having just benefited from a good rain. The Canterbury Malting Company’s plant at Marton is only about 32 kilometres away and the produce from the crop will be carted direct to the plant. Last year Mr Gordon-

Glassford had 100 hectares in barley and it then yielded about two and a half tonnes to the acre. After cereal crops the ground goes into greenfeed for fattening hoggets over the winter.