Since 1870 we’ve lived and breathed malting. With this passion and expertise, and by combining traditional and modern techniques, we create an impressive range of malted and non-malted products, including several unique and exclusive barley malts.
There is nothing more we love than talking to brewers and distillers so if you have any questions, or would like to arrange a call with a member of our team, please feel free to get in touch – we would love to hear from you!
with Rebecca Gee
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It has been an extremely challenging autumn across Europe for malting barley. A very heavy rainfall throughout autumn and winter has seen a considerable fall in winter planted crops, as growers struggled to get in the field for planting. The AHDB early bird survey indicates that planted winter barley area is down 22% on last year across the UK. Despite this, we are well contracted for our winter barley requirements, with the majority coming from the Norfolk and Suffolk area.
Due to the reduction in winter plantings, particularly in winter wheat, there is an understandable intention to plant more spring crops, meaning that it is anticipated that the UK will be up to 29% on barley planting area. This, however, does not necessarily mean that there will be a surplus of this size. Due to continued wet weather, planting has been delayed beyond the optimum planting window, meaning yield will likely be affected. Although spring barley as a whole is up, it is also debatable as to how much of the planted area will yield malting quality barley. In Scotland, spring barley planting has begun within a reasonable time period, so all eyes will be on the weather over the next few weeks.
A similar situation can be seen across Europe. In France, the optimum planting period for spring barley falls at the end of February. At the time of writing, France is approximately 80% planted, meaning that there will likely be a yield impact. Both Denmark and Germany are also considerably behind in spring barley planting. However, there is a fairly relaxed view on this due to the increased area planted and the lack of demand.
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