High yields of grain and straw across two very different seasons and two contrasting soil types in Essex have clearly demonstrated the consistency and reliability of Agrovista’s exclusive two-row winter barley variety Resolute.
Ben Sell, who manages 320ha of combinable crops, rotational grass and energy crops from the family farm near Basildon, has grown Resolute for seed for the past two seasons.
“We put about 60% of the harvest 2025 crop on very sandy, stony ground and 40% on very heavy clay,” says Ben. “Both fields followed maize and were sown on 7 October at 150kg/ha with a combination drill into land worked with a Simba DTX.”
The crop sprung out of the ground and tillered strongly going into winter. “One thing that really stands out is Resolute’s vigour,” he adds.
“It seems to put plenty of root down and really motored in the spring. If you can get a crop in and away like that it becomes much more resilient when it comes to disease, weather and environmental challenges.
“That, coupled with its excellent disease resistance, takes the pressure off the inputs spend and makes management much easier.”
No T0 was applied as the crop looked clean. T1 consisted of prothioconazole + fluoxastrobin + trifloxystrobin to protect against Rhynchosporium and net blotch. Cyflufenamid was added for mildew, along with growth regulators trinexapac-ethyl and chlormequat.
T2 included a top-up of fungicide, ethephon + mepiquat growth regulator and 3 ALO t6p, a foliar treatment that maximises seed and grain filling to optimise yield and quality. No T3 was required due to the dry weather.
“One thing Agrovista stressed was the importance of keeping a seed crop standing, which is why we stepped up the growth regulator programme,” Ben recalls.
“We have a digester on farm so we put organic matter down ahead of the heavy-land crop, so we needed to play safe. We used the same growth regulator programme on the light land too.
“It worked very well, but the thing that really surprised me is how much straw the variety still managed to produce despite the amount of PGR applied. It averaged over 5t/ha across the whole area which we sold for good money. That gave us a very useful uplift to the overall margin.”
Despite the dry weather and at times searing heat, the Resolute was no slouch when it came to yield either. The 8ha heavy-land crop averaged 8.6t/ha over the weighbridge. The 12ha crop on light land unsurprisingly could not match that, but it still averaged 5.4t/ha, producing an overall average of 6.7t/ha. Seed quality was all it needed to be.
“We were very, very pleased with the result, give the significant drought stress our crops were under at various points in the season,” says Ben.
In the previous wetter season Ben’s Resolute averaged 7.2t/ha across 20ha, all of it on light land. “For a variety you don’t have to throw the kitchen sink at, the margins are pretty good.
“I didn’t need much persuading to grow the variety again this year and I’ll certainly have another go next year if required.
“For anyone who wants a great commercial variety with good disease resistance, high straw yield and plenty of grain to feed to their cattle, Resolute will take some beating.”
