New year optimism for spring barley as UK varieties gain European appeal and new high-yielder is fast-track launched
16 December 2009
SPRING malting barley prices may have had a difficult time after last season’s bumper plantings coincided with a fall-off in beer consumption. But there is scope for optimism, industry experts are suggesting.
According to Andersons research economist Graham Redman, in a crop production cycle, high harvest tonnages and depressed prices are followed by less drilling and lower tonnage from the next crop, with higher prices then possible.
Already much winter wheat has been planted this season, he says, which implies the barley area will fall; leading to reduced crop production by the UK and other EU producers, including Denmark and Germany. A fall in cropping may rally markets in 12 months, he suggests.
Also, although the economic downturn isn’t likely to correct itself overnight, beer consumption may have troughed and may even be starting to rise again by next autumn, he adds.
Added to these factors, rising acceptance of popular British brewing varieties across Europe could help growers’ end market prospects, suggests Syngenta Seeds global malting barley business manager, Robert Hiles.
Plus, UK growers have a new, high-yielding variety with European potential in the form of Propino, Mr Hiles says, which has just been added to the HGCA Recommended List for 2010.
“Nobody is pretending spring barley has had an easy time recently,” admits Mr Hiles, “but for professional growers who can produce quality, the longer-term prospects shouldn’t be ignored.
“High yield is central to profit, coupled with good end market acceptability. Fortunately for English growers, two of the most popular spring brewing varieties – in NFC Tipple and Quench – which have a combined English market share of about 70%, have both of these attributes going for them.
“Of the spring varieties with full Institute of Brewing and Distilling (IBD) malting approval for brewing use on the HGCA Recommended List, Quench and NFC Tipple both have high-end UK treated yield figures.
“But more than that, both have grown hugely in pan-European popularity recently. Both are now popular in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Spain and Finland – which could offer export potential for UK growers. Also, new statistics from the European Brewery Convention show that Quench and NFC Tipple ranked as the top two varieties for seed multiplication area across 10 key European countries during 2009. This underlines the European support that they have.”
In line with the need for high yields and Pan European barley, Mr Hiles says Syngenta Seeds is launching its newly-recommended variety Propino for 2010, and has fast-tracked its launch by making enough seed available for around a 2.5% UK market share. Already, Propino is undergoing IBD testing in the UK, and being evaluated in Denmark and Germany, he adds.
“With its top UK treated yield figure among spring malting barley varieties on the HGCA Recommended List of 108%, Propino is 1% above Quench. It also has a high untreated grain yield plus good lodging resistance and is slightly earlier ripening, which helps to spread harvest workloads. Importantly for a new variety where growers are learning to grow it, Propino also has a good score of seven for resistance to the key disease of Rhynchosporium.”
According to Graham Redman, those growers able to achieve high yield and a reasonable malting specification could see a reasonable gross margin for spring malting barley.
His calculations indicate a gross margin of £437/ha – the third highest combinable crop option behind milling and feed wheat. This is based on a spring barley grain price of £125/t and a yield of just 5.25 t/ha.
It should also be remembered there can be additional benefits from including spring barley in rotations, he adds.
As examples, Mr Redman says its different drilling time to other crops allows overheads to be spread, rather than requiring additional resources at key times of year. Also, straw is in demand from livestock farmers, he notes, and is valued at £60/ha, while including additional crops such as spring barley is a way of managing risk.
“Adding a new crop into a rotation also builds it into the marketing portfolio. This means it spreads risks of sharp movements in single crop markets.
“Weather risk is also spread. If the entire farm’s crop is ready for harvest in the same week or fortnight it will all be exposed to quality damage from rain in that period. Including another crop means some may be safely harvested before that critical week.”
Also, spring cropping provides over wintered stubble options in the Entry Level Stewardship scheme, adds Mr Redman, and loosens the rotation, meaning less second wheat and more time between crops like oilseed rape that benefit from a larger rotational divide
