Benchmark Barley

Our control plots of Spring Barley have been sprayed with glyphosate to control creeping sow thistle and barley volunteers (grains that fell off during combining and germinated). This is standard agricultural practice before sowing the next crop. At Honeydale the spring barley is followed by a cover crop of mustard, but we’ve only sprayed the 4 acre control plots in line with our policy of continuing to farm these areas just as they’ve been farmed for many years, since long before we took over Honeydale. We are not using this method on the rest of the farm though, as we are exploring alternatives that don’t depend on costly inputs. The aim is to use the control plots as a benchmark in order to compare different management methods, so we are handing the costs and other data over to James, our farm analyst, and are looking forward to seeing the results.