A spring barley rejected as a feed variety candidate by the HGCA, is now attracting considerable interest for its malting potential throughout Europe, giving rise to a possible new export opportunity for southern spring barley growers.
Bred by Sejet in Denmark, Sebastian was considered as a candidate spring feed variety for the HGCA 2003 recommended list, but rejected as it was considered not to have enough yield advantage over the best feed varieties. In Europe and Scandinavia however, emphasis is placed on differing malting characteristics than in the UK, and here Sebastian is widely seen as being a malting variety having been in trials in 17 countries, and already national listed in seven.
In France alone figures show that Sebastian accounts for 20% of spring barley seed production for harvest 2005 and the variety has already been added to the preferred list of some of Europe's largest maltsters and brewers, including both Carlsberg and Heineken.
This high level of interest, especially in France and Denmark, could provide a useful alternative for spring barley growers in the south of England. Deprived of any major maltings within reasonable distance, spring malting barley growers have been forced to look to the Midlands or East Anglia for a market, with the inevitable result that higher haulage costs have reduced returns.
The alternative route to market is by selecting an export variety and sending it to the docks for shipping to Europe. With ex-farm prices for export malting or for UK malting from southern counties being similar and with demand for Sebastian in France and Denmark, the proximity of this market via Southampton makes this a viable option.
As Sebastian is nearly 5% higher yielding than any other export spring barley variety, it would be the most profitable variety to choose for this market. The main alternative contender for yield would be Cocktail, but this is unlikely to be exported as it is not being progressed in mainland Europe, nor is it on the preferred list of the major continental brewers.
"At present there is about 78,000ha of spring barley grown in the southern counties, which is 24% of the English crop," explains Paul Hickman of Advanta Seeds. "For non-export varieties such as Cocktail, the high cost of haulage at about £15/tonne to maltings in Essex or Burton-on-Trent, makes this a gamble as rejection and downgrading to feed would make the crop completely uneconomic to produce."
"By comparison, for Sebastian to reach the export market via Southampton would only incur a haulage charge of about £5/tonne, making this a far safer option, because even if it is rejected at the docks, the grower has incurred a far lower haulage cost, leaving a gross margin that compares well with that of the best widely grown feed varieties."
