Many factors influence Spring Barley variety choice, but for Scottish farmer Iain Hastie, it was the variety name that sealed the deal when he chose the spring barley Belter last season
Iain farms 221 arable hectares with his family at Dolphingstone Farm, Tranent in East Lothian and locally, folks from Tranent are known as ‘belters’ – thought to be a historical link to a former tannery, which made belts for the region’s mining and farming industries.
Farming on sandy loam soils, Iain grew 34ha of Belter for harvest 2025, alongside winter wheat, Brussel sprouts, potatoes and, for the first time, 25ha of vining peas. The farm’s spring barley acreage extended to 60ha in total, with the balance of the area down to Laureate for malting.
“We’ve been growing Laureate since 2017/18 and it’s been good, but we don’t like growing just one variety because if there’s a problem, then everyone’s affected,” says Iain.
“We like to try and grow two varieties. We’ve tried Diablo before, but every load was rejected and we used to grow Optic back in the day, then Concerto.”
The Belter and Laureate were grown on malting contracts with McCreath, Simpson & Prentice (MSP) and Scotgrain Agriculture and received the same agronomy programme.
Sown between March 15-17 both crops received an application of Amidas (40%N +14% SO3) on April 4, followed by a variable rate application of MOP on April 8.
“We got all our fields tested a couple of years ago and we’ve just started doing variable rate MOP using Rhiza,” says Iain.
Early May saw an application of Human Z50 (manganese 100g/l, zinc 50g/l, sulphur 208g/l) + Cleancrop Corsair (lambda-cyhalothrin 50g/l).
Rylox (mefentrifluconazole 100g/l + pyraclostrobin 95g/l) + Cleancrop Cactus (folpet) + NorTrace Mensa+cu (manganese 50g/l, sulphur 93g/l) was applied in June for control of rhynchosporium, net blotch and yellow rust, plus micronutrient supplementation.
“The only disease problem in spring barley last year was yellow rust,” says Iain. “That was a new one; it was strange that we had it in the barley, but the crops were under quite a lot of stress because of how dry it had been, which may have been a contributing factor.”
The spring barley was combined on August 8, with both the Belter and the Laureate yielding 8.5t/ha and producing a good quantity of straw, which is sold off the farm, in what was a very dry year.
“The Belter and the Laureate were basically exactly the same at 8.5t/ha. We didn’t expect it, to be honest, with it being so dry. We must have got rain at just the right times because it was surprising, once the lorries had gone away, that we still had an extra 2.5 loads in the shed,” says Iain.
Belter is set to be on Iain’s spring barley variety list for 2026 and with a strong set of harvest results, this time round the decision will be supported by much more than a name.
Dolphingstone Farm Belter results harvest 2025
- Moisture: 14 %
- Screenings less than 2.25 mm: 1.1%
- Screenings less than 2.5mm: 3.7%
- Specific weight: 67.8kg/hl
- Tetrazolium stain (germination): 100%
- Total N percentage dry barley: 1.6%