Saffron

Saffron is the UK’s most widely grown winter barley providing very high yields from an agronomically secure variety.

This season, one in every four UK barley fields is down to Saffron grown by those who appreciate its year-on-year consistency.

It is the highest yielding of the two-row control varieties even out yielding the conventional 6-row variety Sequel for yield and possesses none of the screening issues of some other two-row feeds.

Quite simply, Saffron is very easy to grow. With good disease resistance and straw characters, it produces high yields of bold, bright grain with good specific weight.

 

Short, stiff straw

Saffron is a medium height, stiff strawed variety. This gives security in the field, with only a simple PGR programme being required.

Data source: HGCA Recommended List 2008/09 for winter barley

Height (cm)	Resistance to Lodging
89	8

A free tillering variety, Saffron produces abundant good ears all of which produce bold grain.

This high tillering characteristic also means that Saffron is a forgiving variety with the ability to recover from thin or gappy stands, later drilling or poor establishment.

Saffron performs well on all soil types and can be sown from mid September onwards. Winter hardiness is good. Saffron has medium maturity similar to Pearl.

 

Excellent net blotch resistance

Saffron offers good resistance to brown rust and the wet weather diseases. However, mildew is likely to need controlling in most seasons and situations. Like all feed barley varieties, a reasonably robust fungicide input is recommended to exploit Saffron’s very high yield potential.

Data source: HGCA Recommended List 2009/10 for winter barley

Saffron	(1-9)
Mildew	3
Yellow Rust	7
Brown Rust	7
Rhyncosporium	6
Net Blotch	8