Moonshine has definite farmer appeal

The spring barley Moonshine has definite farmer appeal, not just because of its yield and early maturity advantages but also because of the expanding market for malting barley in Scotland, according to Frontier Agriculture.

Added to the HGCA list in 2011 and currently provisionally accepted by the Institute of Brewers and Distillers (IBD), Moonshine is performing really well and is giving growers exactly what they want, says David Waite, Northern Seeds Manager for Frontier.

"This variety offers one of the best spring barley yields, yet it is early to mature - a combination that breeders have found quite a challenge in the past."

"Over the years spring barley growers have been bombarded with later and later maturing varieties. I would imagine that it is easier to get top yields with later maturing varieties quite simply because the grain filling period is longer. The real skill is to breed a variety that yields just as well as the market leader, Concerto, but is ready for harvest much earlier."

David points out that the HGCA scoring for maturity gives Moonshine 0 days ripening compared with Optic and gives Concerto has a +1 day rating.

"In the field and also the further North you go, the more exaggerated or stretched these maturity figures become. From what I have seen, Moonshine is at least 2-3 days earlier than Concerto and that can make all the difference when it comes to harvest and managing workloads."

"Many farmers are choosing to grow two malting varieties to spread the risk and harvest workload and demonstrating this early maturity makes Moonshine a definite variety to put in the mix."

Frontier Agriculture farmers are growing both commercial and seed crops of Moonshine in Scotland and their agronomists are reporting that it looks very promising.

"Most of the spring barley was planted in good conditions in March, but has suffered since then with poor weather conditions."

"We could do with some warmth now. Our agronomists say that Moonshine looks to be performing well though. It is also proving to be an easy variety to look after. Its lodging rating is a good 6, the same as Concerto, and it is shorter."

"Its disease profile is not much different to Concerto, both with ratings of 8 for mildew and 4 for Rhynchosporium, and anyway barley diseases are quite straight forward to deal with the appropriate fungicide treatment," reports David Waite.

The overall package that Moonshine offers makes it a variety that has definite farmer appeal, says David.

It also has plenty of selling opportunities, as the demand for malting barley is higher, according to Frontier’s barley trader Ian Keith.

"The area of spring barley in Scotland this year is higher than last year to help satisfy this demand. The December Survey for Scotland indicates that the area of winter barley, winter wheat, winter rape and winter oats in Scotland were all down due to the poor weather conditions at drilling."

"This leaves an extra 20,000 hectares of spring cropping to make up the deficit (assuming the arable cropping area remains the same). Therefore, it is estimated that there will be around 284,000 hectares of spring barley being grown in Scotland this year. South of the Forth and North of the Tay, winter croppings were mostly unaffected by the weather, but it was the central belt that suffered the most and so will see the largest increase in spring cropping area this spring."

"Overall we are also seeing a significant move away from feed barley varieties to malting varieties - quite rightly so when the demand for malting barley is so good."

"I estimate that demand for malting barley from distillers this year will be 850,000 to 900,000 tonnes. And it is good that it will come from Scottish growers. It is a positive story all round, with demand for Scottish whisky and Scottish malting barley both at an all time high," reports Ian.

Moonshine is the first spring barley to be launched in the UK by RAGT and it has performed very well in Scotland.

"Yields of Moonshine last year at nine Scottish sites were above Concerto. It also matured a week earlier than Concerto and has lower average nitrogen levels at 1.47%. Moonshine is a GN no-producer, which is important for the distillers. It is a variety that suits Scotland well," says Simon Howell, Managing Director of RAGT.