UK: Barley yields variable as harvest begins

Crops are variable not only because of different weather conditions in different areas, but also because much spring barley was sown late, Farming & Rural Affairs and Business Scotsman commented on July 22. In Fife and parts of the North-east, in particular, growers are not anticipating bumper yields when the harvest does start.

Price is of even more concern, especially for potential malting barley. This has been an annual concern since the last heady harvest of high prices, £140 a tonne and occasionally more, for the crop a decade ago.

Yet in spite of concerns and threats by growers that they would drop the crop, the acreage of spring barley in Scotland has held up well.

Mike Dagg, a trader with Simpson McCreath Prentice of Berwick, one of the leading buyers of malting quality, said yesterday: "We understand the anxieties of growers, but we are working on a basic contract of £90 per tonne for malting barley, depending on quality and nitrogen. The problem is that there is an over-supply of malt and our sector is under pressure from the major brewers who are big players in this market."

Threats to stop growing spring barley might have more clout now because of the common agricultural policy change from production subsidies to a single "freedom to farm" payment. Dagg took a pragmatic view of that possibility. He said: "I don't think we will see much change in the cropping programme for the 2006 harvest, with a Scottish spring barley acreage still about 260,000 hectares. But he added: "If prices do not improve, 2007 could be different."

In England, combines have been busy over the past ten days, according to Andrew Parris, who farms near Ongar in Essex. He said: "We haven't started yet, but it won't be long if the weather stays fine. My neighbours with winter barley are reporting mixed results. A lack of rain has been a factor. "Some second-wheats have been cut, but yields are moderate and quality pretty ordinary."

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