Has anyone got any up to date info on what the maltsters might be offering for barley next harvest?

             I've sold all mine, - well, as many tonnes as I dare,  Optic Spring barley at £185 per tonne. and Winter barley Pearl at £150 per tonne, subject to Nitrogen percentage being okay.

Why is the winter barley discounted?

          Winter barley does not have the quality of spring barley for the Scottish malting requirements.

kiwi, you may well ask.

The buyers invented the discount to boost their profit.

When they are really short, they pay up.

winter barley yields about 3 ton/acre, as opposed to 2.6 for spring, although it costs lot more to grow.

How is the sheep trade  over there? is land still going up?

glasshouse:

When they are really short, they pay up.

Same here, next year I will get a premium for winter barley straight of the header because it's short. Normally it's the same and you can't sell it of the header, supply and demand I suppose.

I'm still giving away my lambs for next to nothing last lot NZ$58. I hear you're getting better money so maybe next year. 

Land seems to be settling down around here.

          Yes, supply and demand, of course, does affect the price. In my case, the Pearl winter barley is sold at maximum 1.85% Nitrogen content and the Optic spring barley is sold at maximum 1.65% Nitrogen. I doubt if the pearl malt will be going to the whisky industry at that Nitrogen level. It could be mixed with low N barley but their are other factors which will be taken into account such as germination quality and dormancy, also, the amount of spirit produced per tonne of malt is an important factor to the maltsters and this can vary between varieties. 

          From a farmers point of view, the cream on the cake this year might be the fact that these malting contracts are at maximum 19% moisture content. Therefore, no drying costs beneath 19%. A very good hedge against rising fuel costs and probably the reason why I am not managing to get any success in trying to add another two lorry loads to this contract (from the balance I have contracted unpriced).

I forgot to say AllyR that I am growing for feed. A 19% moisture content is very attractive and the prices you have signed up to seem quite good.

My very limited experience with Autumn barley is that it yields less than Spring barley, but then we have no true winter varieties.  UK wheat & barley varieties tend to do quite well over here, what are the most common winter barley's grown for feed?

            Kiwi, I am sorry I will have to go and work just now but you could try our Home Grown Cereals Authority website, meantime. It will have far better knowledge than I have.   www.hgca.com  .

Most winter feed barleys around here are now 6row hybrids. Boost is particularly popular. A conventional 2row called Saffron also quite often drilled. Some people plant a blend of a 6row and 2row.

Either way, winter barley seems to me a dead crop. We are loosing IPU herbicide, and so heavy land growers are not going to drill anything like the area they once did. With those heavy-land growers also moving towards faster OSR establishment and hybrid varieties, the early harvest does not have the same advantage it once did.

Thanks AllyR and TeslaCoils. Winter barley isn't a common crop over here, it's mostly grown on dry land farms. I guess this is why there aren't any true autumn  varieties available. I would like to be planting one of the hybrids but they haven't made it over here. 6 row barley has a bad reputation for poor grain quality (i don't know if it deserved or not). 

This is only my second season of growing WB. The main attraction is that it allows me to establish a new pasture a month earlier than i would be able to otherwise, which allows me to graze it through the winter. It also spreads harvest and more importantly autumn cultivations. Winter wheat has a very short inter-crop period in my little corner of the world.