|
Dalton, OH | We raised barley for many years on our farm up until we sold all of the animals in the late 1990's. Made absolutely wonderful feed. Usually we would replace half of the corn with barley in our hog feed and also fed it to sheep. I know of many dairies out west that feed lots of barley.
Best time for our part of Ohio to plant it is about September 10-20. You want good fertility but not too good or it will all go flat. Also want well drained ground as it doesn't like wet feet. Not familiar with current varieties, but not bearded is usually less itchy to deal with. in our part of Ohio, it can easily make 100 bushels/ac. Best barley we ever raised (and may have saved our farm) was in the drought year of 1988. It made over 125 bu/ac. The straw is brighter than wheat straw and really makes nice bedding. It will make more straw than wheat too. The straw can also be used in ponds for algae control.
From my experience, barley doesn't sprout and is more immune to many of the issues we deal with on wheat.
If I could get some local dairies to feed it, I would start raising it again in a heartbeat as its so much easier than wheat.
Good luck.
Email me with any other questions. | |
|
Tell me more about barley
