Malting barley harvest gets well under way

In the UK, the winter barley harvest is well under way and, so far, the indication is for much higher Nitrogen than normal with reduced yields.

"The drought has really pushed Nitrogen levels up this year and even the later winter barleys on the more drought resistant soils are trending higher," explains Stuart Shand, Gleadell Agriculture’s sales director. "It is not uncommon for growers who normally get 1.60 Nitrogen to have a shed full of 2.00% or over.

"Yields can be up to 20-30% lower than normal and, in some cases in East Anglia, as much as 50% lower. Even though the maltsters have raised their acceptance levels, supply is going to be vastly reduced and the demand will have to be met using extra spring barley.

"Maltsters are still trying to persuade their customers - the Brewers - to relax their nitrogen tolerances even further. But Brewers want to see more spring results before they make any decisions.

"We are still expecting the south of England to produce very good spring barley as they have always had the better of the growing season weather, and the first results seem to confirm this. We are now seeing Lincolnshire spring barley results and, again, the trend is for higher Nitrogen and lower yield than normal."

Mr Shand comments that Null-Lox varieties are doing extremely well in comparison to conventional varieties. On one farm where the grower had both Null-Lox and conventional barley, the Null-Lox yielded 2.33 t/acre (5.75 t/ha) and the conventional 1.86 t/acre (4.60t/ha) at very similar moistures of 16.60 vs. 16.20%. The Null-Lox Nitrogen was 1.80 vs. 1.78 for the conventional, with the other quality parameters as good. (Null Lox is traded on 1.92 Nitrogen).

"This means the Null-Lox variety ’Cha Cha’ gave £43/tonne extra income over the conventional variety. It’s therefore no surprise to learn that they have now decided to swap all of their spring malting barley tonnage over to Null-Lox for the 2012 season," he adds.