EU: Barley quality 2005 in Germany and other EU countries

Poorer vegetation conditions have led to lower yields in Germany and are making it necessary to select the quality of malting barley. France and the Czech Republic also had difficult weather conditions. The Scandinavian countries and Great Britain, in contrast, had a good malting barley harvest. Overall, the malt quality can be classified as good. The main problem is frequently the extract, which is too low but results independently of the variety, Global Malt group and Schill Malz have published in their technical report from November 2005.

The 2005 vegetation period was characterised in large areas of Europe by good growing conditions but unfortunately also by temperatures, which were too high in June. There was no rain during this period, which again had a negative influence on the yield and development of the grain. In July and August, in contrast, the rain was sometimes heavy leading to interruptions of the harvest.

For these reasons the yields in Germany are much lower than last year. The result of the poorer quality, in some cases making selection necessary, is that supplies in Germany are much scarcer than usual and there is a tangible dependence on imports.

In South-West Germany and France, the vegetation conditions already described had a clearly negative effect on the proportion of full grain barley, which is more than three percent below the level of last year.

The sorting of the Auriga variety is remarkably low, especially when the grain fraction > 2.8 mm is considered. “We already know from past tests that Auriga has a low sorting (see Technical Report 2004). It is one of the properties, which characterises this variety even under better vegetation conditions,” Global Malts group commented in the statement.

The rainy weather led in isolated cases to the growth of sooty mould. Deviations such as open or hidden pre-malting were only discovered in a few preliminary samples, which we called in for quality evaluation.

In France the sowing was delayed, which also shortened the vegetation period somewhat. The result of this, in combination with the poor weather conditions already described for Germany, is lower yields. The protein contents are unattractively high everywhere.

The rain-affected harvest in Northern Germany led in isolated cases to barley with pre-malting and contamination of the grain with sooty mould. However, the initial investigations show that the barley does not contain the mycotoxin Deoxynivalenol (DON) and the first tests happily showed the malt to be gushingnegative. The protein contents show a broad spread and have averaged out at 10.9%.

Further north in Europe, in Denmark, the picture for malting barley is much better this year than last year. The harvest conditions, except for a slightly delayed threshing time, were virtually ideal. There is a surplus of good quality malting barley available, which we have already called in for our plant in Hamburg. On the mainland, the protein contents average 11.0%, on the islands Lolland, Fünen and Seeland they average 9.5-10.5%.

In England and Wales a slightly smaller area of spring malting barley was cultivated compared with last year, while the area in Scotland were virtually unchanged. The harvest overall can be classified as good. The protein contents are in the range from 10.5%-11.5%, although the measured values for Scotland tend to be in the lower range. The section of Optic we tested had a protein content of 10.5%. As in Denmark, there is a surplus of good quality malting barley available.

In Eastern Germany, the protein content of the barley is somewhat higher than last year at an average of 11.1%. For the grading, however, it is virtually impossible to detect any differences between the two vintages. Contamination with sooty mould is only observed in isolated cases and at low levels.

The vegetation conditions in Poland were comparable with those in Germany. Throughout Poland there was a lack of heavy rainfall in June and July, which led to smaller grains. The protein content of the variety average is somewhat higher than last year at 11.0%. The barley displayed only a slight and isolated occurrence of sooty mould.

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