Gleadell  

Quench logo

The top yielding spring malting barley
Parentage: Sebastian x Drum

Status: HGCA Recommended List 2007 and SAC Recommended List 2007tt



Yield Potential

Quench is the highest yielding spring malting barley available in UK treated situations – a massive 12% higher than Optic.

Yield Potential

Quench has produced excellent yields across all regions of the UK, ensuring it is a very consistent variety to grow.

table 2

Quench is also extremely high yielding in untreated situations.

table 3

Disease Resistance

Quench has a good all round disease profile with excellent resistance to Rhynchosporium and mildew.

However a managed fungicide programme is recommended.

disease resistance

Fungicide Use

Getting early to mid season agronomy right is crucial to establishing a healthy crop.

T0  - 

The T0 spray prevents diseases gaining a foothold in long growing seasons or where disease pressure is high. The use of Unix helps keep Rhynchosporium at bay.

T1-

 Timing is key for protecting the canopy during the plants' main burst of growth. Kayak + Triazole provides broad spectrum disease control.

T2-  

Managing late season plant health is also vitally important to ensure a healthy harvest. This is the key time to protect grain fill with awns and green leaf areas being the key targets. Strobilurins protect against foliar diseases and Chlorothalonil has demonstrated control of biotic and abiotic spotting.


CORE PROGRAMME

T0  -

Unix and Tern (should be used where disease pressure is high)

T1-

Kayak + Triazole

T2-  

Amistar Opti + Triazole



Agronomic Information

Quench is a relatively short and very stiff variety with excellent resistance to lodging and brackling. Quench is similar maturing to Optic.

agronomic table

Growth Habit

Early Spring - Semi prostrateprostrate

Tillering ability - Medium-High

Maturity - Medium-Late (Optic type)


Drilling Dates

Suitability for early drilling - Good 

Suitability for late drilling (April) - Good

Optimum drilling date - February – March (Scotland).  January – February (England)

Recommended Sowing Rates

Quench adapts to variable plant populations, so has no adverse effects to screenings and little variability on yield with variable seed rates. Seed rates are dependent on soil conditions at the time of drilling, the more difficult the environment, the higher the seed rate must be to compensate for potential plant loss. The table below shows the suggested number of seeds per square metre that should be planted under good conditions.

Sowing rates

The chart above should always be used in conjunction with the thousand-grain weight of the seed to calculate the sowing rate.


Nitrogen Application

Higher nitrogen inputs increase yields and recent advice has been to lift rates for producing higher grain nitrogen lager malt. However end user requirements generally are shifting back towards <1.75N. Applying too much nitrogen pushes screenings and grain nitrogen too high – especially in seasons like 2002 and 2003 when weather conditions did not allow plants to fully utilise available nitrogen. Varieties have different optimum nitrogen rates, therefore balancing N inputs to end market, variety and season is key. While difficult to advise on exact nitrogen rates, many growers know how much to apply to Optic for a 1.65% grain nitrogen.

For Quench, the following is a rule of thumb.

Quench: 125-150 kg/ha N (in most situations)

Optic: 125 – 150 kg/ha N (in most situations)


On heavier land, Quench is more robust than other varieties in terms of grain size and protein level, so

residuals and bad weather patterns should not give excessive variability to end quality.


PGR's

Normally not required, however NFC advises their use on lush cr ops or very fertile sites. In these cases use low rate Moddus (0.1 – 0.2 l/ha) at GS 29-30 to stabilise tillers and promote root development.


Quality

Quench is under IBD commercial evaluation for brewing during harvest 2007. Quench is also currently being tested and evaluated across Europe (including France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Latvia and Lithuania) which may offer potential export opportunities.

Quench appears to possess a very ‘balanced profile' in quality attributes required by European customers, including good Hot Water Extract (HWE), good levels of DP and low beta glucan.


Grain Quality

Specific Wt - 68.6 kg/hl

Sieving % through - 2.25mm – 2.5%

Sieving % through - 2.5mm – 7.6%

Nitrogen Content - 1.55N

TGW - Good

Harvesting

Normal priority – it is always advisable to harvest the crop in the best condition as soon as moisture is correct.

As with all malting barleys, the variety should be kept separate to pr event contamination and obtain the

maximum premium from the end product.


Storage Management

Storage of malting barley is a must priority to ensure harvest quality remains. Malting barley in storage should be regularly checked, with grain temperatures and moistures being monitored to ensure germination levels are maintained at 98% minimum.

The table below shows the importance of low moisture content and grain temperature for storing malting barley, it also shows the approximate safe storage time in days.

 

Grain temperature

All information is a partial extraction from the New farm crops website and also the HGCA Recommended List 2007/8. See http://www.newfarmcrops.co.uk/ and also www.hgca.com for the full dataset