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Growing Barley in Shetland

John Williamson bought the croft of 14 Veensgarth roughly two years ago. Compared to his previous crops this croft had a greater area of potential arable land. When the opportunity came up to buy an old but serviceable combine harvester, he decided he would like to try growing some barley. John had a soil sample analysed by SAC. The pH was fine for barley just needing a maintenance dressing of 2.5t/ha which it received. Both the P&K were both low. Nitrogen application was modest at under 70kg N/ha but plenty of P&K was applied. The crop was Propino barley which was broadcast after ploughing and harrowing and rolled in after a light harrow. No herbicide or fungicide was applied. The yield was measured as a total of 9.5 tonnes at 23% moisture with propionic acid used to preserve the grain. The 9.5t @ 23% equates to 8.6t @15% moisture giving an estimated yield of 5.4t/ha (2.2t/acre). This is an excellent yield given the modest level of inputs applied. The cost of barley is high in Shetland due to shipping so the grain can be valued at around £175/t. To ensure the straw could be kept in good condition the bales were wrapped and a total 20 bales were secured worth roughly £40 per bale in Shetland. So overall the output has a value of around £2,400 with relatively modest costs of around £1000 for the seed, fertiliser, propcorn and plastic wrap leaving a healthy margin of over £800/ha to cover time and machinery costs.