# Nitrogen rate for barley



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

This is my first time growing winter barley. I applied 35 units of N last fall when I planted it. How much N do I need to top dress it with this spring? Single or split application? With the early spring here I'm guessing it will need to be top dressed in the next week or two.


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

Grain/straw or hay? You are on sandy loam? I'm trying to recall. Liquid or granular? Malt producer in the backside of the hill hits it with 40 lbs at 10-12 in height. Granular. Then, just as the head starts to emerge or just before he does a tissue sample. He applies any deficiency at that point with liquid tank mixed with the fungicide application.
Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

On our farm we will soon apply 50 units of nitrogen to the barley very soon.Half urea and half ammoniom sulfate.I think another 20 # may still be avalible fromlast falls dairy manure app. Some would think a little more conservativly . If you absolutely do not want any lodging go conservative on N. Review any manure application in the past and consider any residual N.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Why do you split between urea and ammonium sulfate? Is the urea faster acting?


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

Depends a lot too on the K levels in soil tests, Lots of N with K leads to lodging.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

hillside hay said:


> Grain/straw or hay? You are on sandy loam? I'm trying to recall. Liquid or granular? Malt producer in the backside of the hill hits it with 40 lbs at 10-12 in height. Granular. Then, just as the head starts to emerge or just before he does a tissue sample. He applies any deficiency at that point with liquid tank mixed with the fungicide application.
> Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.


 I'm growing the barley for feed grain and baling the straw. Soil is a mix gravelly loam and pockets of red clay. I was planning on using liquid 28%.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

endrow said:


> On our farm we will soon apply 50 units of nitrogen to the barley very soon.Half urea and half ammoniom sulfate.I think another 20 # may still be avalible fromlast falls dairy manure app. Some would think a little more conservativly . If you absolutely do not want any lodging go conservative on N. Review any manure application in the past and consider any residual N.


 What growth stage do you topdress your barley? I was thinking about applying 70-80 units of N this spring. Sounds like that might be a bit much? I can tolerate a little lodging if it means a higher yield but I don't want most of the field lodging. applied any manure on this ground so there shouldn't be much residual N. Not sure how much if any of the 35 units of N at planting is still available.


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

That sounds like a bit more than I would do. Going for feed grain and straw I don't put on more than 80 units from planting to heading out. That's just me though. My malting neighbors put on just over 100 units in three application.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

FarmerCline said:


> What growth stage do you topdress your barley? I was thinking about applying 70-80 units of N this spring. Sounds like that might be a bit much? I can tolerate a little lodging if it means a higher yield but I don't want most of the field lodging. applied any manure on this ground so there shouldn't be much residual N. Not sure how much if any of the 35 units of N at planting is still available.


Ist sign of green up is best time to apply n. We go on dry fertilizer half AMS half urea. That will happen here end of this week . We will wait any where from 16 to 35 days after n app back on to spray weeds with harmony and tilt fungicide . Then Persaro fungicide at flag leaf . ... Cline IMO if I were you 70# Tops and to be safe carry 10units over from planting app. That means I would suggest Max 60 units spring app . Some barley varsities are worse for lodging.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

endrow said:


> Ist sign of green up is best time to apply n. We go on dry fertilizer half AMS half urea. That will happen here end of this week . We will wait any where from 16 to 35 days after n app back on to spray weeds with harmony and tilt fungicide . Then Persaro fungicide at flag leaf . ... Cline IMO if I were you 70# Tops and to be safe carry 10units over from planting app. That means I would suggest Max 60 units spring app . Some barley varsities are worse for lodging.


 It has been green and growing all winter here so there isn't really a spring green up here. It was very late being planting due to no moisture.....planted end of November and didn't germinate until mid December but thanks to a warm winter it now has 3-4 nice sized tillers per plant. I was thinking about waiting until right before it started jointing to apply the N as that is what most guys growing wheat around here do but from what you are saying it sounds like I need to get it on now. Wasnt sure how much different growing barley was from wheat as there isn't much barley grown around here. Any reason you use dry instead of liquid N? I was going to use liquid since the fertilize company here usually doesn't have the best spreader trucks and the spreading job isn't the most uniform.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Liquid would burn the barley would it not?


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

, Cline you got me all revved up I started today


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

FarmerCline said:


> It has been green and growing all winter here so there isn't really a spring green up here. It was very late being planting due to no moisture.....planted end of November and didn't germinate until mid December but thanks to a warm winter it now has 3-4 nice sized tillers per plant. I was thinking about waiting until right before it started jointing to apply the N as that is what most guys growing wheat around here do but from what you are saying it sounds like I need to get it on now. Wasnt sure how much different growing barley was from wheat as there isn't much barley grown around here. Any reason you use dry instead of liquid N? I was going to use liquid since the fertilize company here usually doesn't have the best spreader trucks and the spreading job isn't the most uniform.


 You are correct it would take a top notch spreader and operator for this job. I was sharing what we do on our farm it may not be the right thing for your farm we live pretty far from one another


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

somedevildawg said:


> Liquid would burn the barley would it not?


 Maybe a little but it shouldn't hurt it. I usually use liquid to top dress my oats and I don't get much burn.....wouldn't think barley would be much different.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

endrow said:


> You are correct it would take a top notch spreader and operator for this job. I was sharing what we do on our farm it may not be the right thing for your farm we live pretty far from one another


 I'm thinking or climates are probably pretty similar just that I have a longer growing season with a milder winter and hotter summer.

In the pics of your barley what's that hole in the ground in the fourth picture?


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

Yea, I was going to ask about the hole myself....


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## reede (May 17, 2010)

He's from Pennsylvania. It is a groundhog hole. Those northern groundhogs like to have nice houses.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

The barley has really jumped in the past few days. Starting to see a few spots in the field yellowing just a bit so it looks like it needs the N. Fertilizer company is supposed to spray tomorrow. They said their spray truck was set at a fixed rate of 20 gallons per acre so that would give me about 56 units of N using 28% N. That is pretty close to the rate that was suggest on here so that's what I'm going with.

I'm thinking about letting them mix Harmony with the N so I don't have to make another trip across the field with my sprayer the get the weeds. Any drawbacks to mixing the Harmony with the N?


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Here are a couple pictures I took of the barley. You can see a few of the lighter green/yellowing spots I mentioned. I also took an up close of the lighter green barley compared to the darker green that most of the field is.


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

FarmerCline said:


> I'm thinking about letting them mix Harmony with the N so I don't have to make another trip across the field with my sprayer the get the weeds. Any drawbacks to mixing the Harmony with the N?


 I will be 100% honest and say that this conversation is way over my head, BUT, I was in the local ag service this morning and a similar conversation was happening. I asked your question (but it applied to wheat and not barley, so apples/oranges) and was told that it would probably be ok if you were to use enough water to get up to @27/28 gal per acre and use half-rate surfactant to keep from burning the wheat (barley). Hope this helps a little and isn't a waste of time to read

Mark


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

glasswrongsize said:


> I will be 100% honest and say that this conversation is way over my head, BUT, I was in the local ag service this morning and a similar conversation was happening. I asked your question (but it applied to wheat and not barley, so apples/oranges) and was told that it would probably be ok if you were to use enough water to get up to @27/28 gal per acre and use half-rate surfactant to keep from burning the wheat (barley). Hope this helps a little and isn't a waste of time to read
> Mark


 Not a waste of time to read.....appreciate all the input I can get.

The fertilize company came today to spray so I decided to just go ahead and mix the harmony with the liquid N they were spraying. The label said is was okay to mix with N as a carrier but did say that there could be some temporary yellowing and stunting. Didn't have much of a choice on the rate as the spray rig they have mounted on the bed of an old international truck is set to apply a fixed rate of 20 gallons per acre.....very primitive compared to the big fancy self propelled spray rigs that fertilize companies in areas with more agriculture use.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Sorry to got on behind on this conversation been running crazy lately due to nice weather and now it rained and is cold again . I said earlier we go on with water when using Harmony . I saw a stand of barley yesterday burned that bad from UAN I would be sick . I blame the mixing of nitrogen with herbicides as a major cause of resistant weeds. Cline keep us posted on this we all learn from one another. How much surfactant was used in the mix ??


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

endrow said:


> Sorry to got on behind on this conversation been running crazy lately due to nice weather and now it rained and is cold again . I said earlier we go on with water when using Harmony . I saw a stand of barley yesterday burned that bad from UAN I would be sick . I blame the mixing of nitrogen with herbicides as a major cause of resistant weeds. Cline keep us posted on this we all learn from one another. How much surfactant was used in the mix ??


 It was suggested by my fertilize company not to add any surfactant when mixing Harmony with the N. They said the N would take place of the surfactant.

They sprayed on Friday and we were supposed to have an 80% chance of rain on Saturday but didn't get a drop. No rain in the forecast now.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

It has been a week now since the nitrogen and harmony was sprayed. Got some rain on Tuesday and Wednesday and I can already tell the N has greened up the spots of the field that had started to yellow a little. Didn't have any crop burn except for the wheel tracks of the spray truck and even the tracks were not too bad and in a few more days you probably won't be able see the tracks.

I had one field that didn't have many weeds spayed with just the N before adding the Harmony to see if there was any difference in crop burn and there was not. I'm impressed at how well the Harmony has already worked on the winter weeds.....it even is killing some henbit patches that were mature and blooming.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Good you made the right decision not to add any surfactant. There are people up here who add a half rate a surfactant with a nitrogen and have a lot of burn. But the reason they are doing that they say the chick weeds becoming resistant to Harmony. Some think Harmony tank mixed with high rates of nitrogen is causing the resistance I'm not sure


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