Almost two million tonnes of barley - spring and winter - was harvested in Scotland, up about 17 % versus 2002 and the biggest Scottish crop for at least 15 years, Allied Grain, one of the big players in the cereals and oilseed market, said in The Scotsman issue from October 2. Kevin Mills, UK commercial director for Allied, said: "It has been a fantastic Scottish harvest, The rest of the UK is nothing like it."

Prices, in spite of the annual concern about where open-ended contracts for malting barley will settle, are also well above those of 2002 - in fact, the highest for five years.

Spring barley, almost all of malting potential, averaged 5.9 tonnes per hectare, winter barley 7.37 tonnes. It has been a vintage year for spring barley growers in north-east Scotland in particular, said Ian Keith, Allied’s barley director: "Last year many spring crops struggled to reach 60 kg/ha. This year, most have been over 70."

Without speculating on malting premiums, Keith said: "I have no doubt that because of the quality, as nitrogens have also been low, maltsters will have filled every available store. Quite a lot of that could be carried over to next year."

The UK barley total is estimated at 6.254 million tonnes, up marginally on last year’s 6.192 million.

Winter-sown oilseed rape yields in Scotland averaged 3.84 tonnes per hectare, a record, against the UK average of 3.2.

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