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.
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In East Anglia, we are experiencing a similar year to 2025 crop, with the growing season seeing a lack of rain. The recent rains have been of some help, along with the sunshine for grain filling, however there has been some damage to spring barley, which will affect yield and quality. This is reflected in the most recent AHDB crop ratings. The biggest question is whether the crop has taken up nitrogen during the season, and what the nitrogen of the barley will be on intake.
Overall however, due to the drop in demand from the maltster, there is not too much concern about being able to obtain the quality of barley required at the right quality. In terms of winter barley, condition generally looks good, despite some disease concern earlier in the growing season. The recent rains have certainly helped to finish of this barley, which is moving through growth stages quite quickly. We would expect to see the first cuts of winter barley in the next couple of weeks.
It has also been fairly dry in Scotland, although recent rains have left he crop looking relatively good. The rain came in good time for the Scottish spring barley, due to later planting than crops in East Anglia, meaning yield and quality is thought to be less affected. The crop is currently in the awn emergence stage, with low disease pressure overall, and yield potential has stabilised. The biggest quality risks to monitor will be grain size, which will largely be affected by sunshine and moisture in the coming weeks, as well as nitrogen of the grain on intake.
Generally conditions for spring malting barley are favorable at present, with little agronomic stress, despite Denmark also experiencing a lack of rain earlier in the growing season. Due to well-timed rains however, have stabilised yield potential and crop development, meaning the dryer weather has had less impact on the crop than seen in the UK.
A long winter and a cold, dry spring adversely affected malting barley crops in Poland. Plants did not branch out vigorously, and it was not possible to complete all treatment applications on time. Branching rates and ear size are significantly lower than in the previous harvest year. Since the beginning of June, there have been fairly regular rainfalls, which, given the still low temperatures, have significantly improved the appearance of the crops. It is hoped that grain filling will improve yields, but the lack of shortening may result in lodging. Given the current weather pattern, winter barley harvest should not begin before the end of June.
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