With fewer input costs, prime opportunities to hit blackgrass and premium prices for malting and brewing, spring barley is enjoying a resurgence in popularity.

Average yields were up 2.4% this harvest and an AHDB early bird survey of cropping intentions conducted by Andersons suggests that the spring barley area for the 2016 harvest will have increased by 10%. 

Most spring barley varieties can be used for malting, provided fertiliser is applied early to keep grain nitrogen levels low. 

See also: Resistant blackgrass forces cut in winter wheat area

Limagrain’s technical manager Ron Grainger tells Farmers Weekly that growers on all land types are realising the benefits the crop can bring to their rotation.

“Spring crops used to be an afterthought if you couldn’t get winter crops in the ground, but now they are a strategic part of farming.

“The area of spring barley being grown is increasing and new farms are starting to grow the crop and change over to it very quickly. They haven’t had a lot of choice and I think it will be a big part of cropping on most farms.”

Norfolk contract farmer Kit Papworth says a second wheat is never grown on the 1,500ha he jointly manages, because of the yield implications and a wide rotation.

LF Papworth contract farms for 20 landowners around north-east Norfolk, growing potatoes, vining peas, beans, wheat, barley, oilseed rape and sugar beet.

A typical year sees 300-350ha of spring barley grown for seed and malting markets. 

“We never grow second wheats here. On this land there is no point because of the yield reductions and costs.

“In this part of the world it is all about paired cropping. Growing wheat after sugar beet isn’t the right thing to do, so we go for spring cropping instead.”

As sugar beet lifting pushes into the winter months, Mr Papworth assesses the weather and yield figures to help him decide the point at which wheat drilling stops and spring barley sowing begins.

“It makes most sense to grow a sugar beet crop that yields 100t/ha at £20/t and then spring barley yielding 10t/ha that gets a £20-25/t malting premium.

 “We are lucky in that we have no blackgrass thanks to our broad rotation, so even on very heavy land we aren’t restricted. We only grow wheat after vining peas or oilseed rape,” says Mr Papworth.

Varieties versus demand

Growers often face a dilemma when deciding on the spring barley variety to grow, he adds.

Concerto, one of the malting and brewing industry’s long-standing favourites, is a key variety grown by Mr Papworth, along with smaller areas of other, newer varieties.

Concerto was the first dual-purpose, non-glycosidic nitrile (GN) variety, meaning it is preferred for distilling and brewing.

Norfolk contract grower Kit Papworth

Some barley varieties produce GN at high levels when they are malted and this can mean significant levels of the harmful compound ethyl carbonate are present.

After making it on to the AHDB Recommended List, a malting variety needs to gain approval from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (IBD) before it will be accepted by the industry in any great quantity.

“Concerto is a very valuable as a variety because of the industry demand for it – the maltsters can mix it with other varieties. As far as I am concerned it is a niche variety and the buyers love it,” Mr Papworth explains.

Average yields, disease resistance and agronomics all come second to what he says is the number one driver when choosing a variety – buyer demand.

LF Papworth is part of an East Anglia grower group set up to supply the Crisp Malting Group, which has plant locations in Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Scotland.

The groups discuss the supply and demand for spring barley varieties to make sure growers and buyers are in tune with each other.

Growers have to be driven by what the buyers are looking for, but it is also about building confidence with merchants to find varieties that they might accept, Mr Papworth adds.

Mr Grainger says Limagrain’s spring barley breeding programme is focused on producing new non-GN varieties to help growers meet industry demand.

“We are breeding new varieties with good yields and disease resistance and all of these are non-GN because they offer growers greater flexibility.

“You have to produce a crop that the end user wants and that can compete in markets throughout Europe. It is simple supply and demand.”

Establishment

Drilling into a good seed-bed in favourable conditions is crucial to growing a quality spring barley crop.

Mr Papworth aims to manage his winter wheat seed supply by ensuring there isn’t too much left over before he makes the call to switch over to spring barley drilling.

“We were still drilling wheat in the second week of November and we didn’t plan to drill any spring barley before Christmas,” he says.

“The main thing we have learned over the past 10 years is that you need to get really good establishment. Get the nitrogen on and get the crop away quickly.

“Fundamentally if we are lifting sugar beet in poor conditions in November, it is best to wait until February if need be to get the spring barley in well.”

He cites one spring barley crop last harvest that yielded 10t/ha because, he says, it was drilled into a quality seed-bed and an effective nitrogen application made for rapid emergence.

The aim is to achieve 85% crop establishment and if a crop is below this, Mr Papworth says it is likely that it was drilled when conditions were too wet.

With quality vital to hitting malting specifications, he stresses that priority at harvest must be given to spring barley crops once they are ready to cut.

The farm has recently moved over to a liquid fertiliser regime and nitrogen applications are varied according to land type.

“More than 120kg/ha of nitrogen is starting to push the boundaries on this land. We put more than 50% on at drilling and the rest goes on as soon as we can get back on in good conditions,” he says.

Optimising seed rates will also help with spring barley establishment, adds Mr Grainger, with Limagrain data pointing to 350 seeds/sq m as the ideal rate for many varieties.

“Establishment is key with spring crops so you have to be drilling when conditions are good,” he reiterates.

“As with wheat, seed rates for spring barley are not an exact science, but 350 seeds/ sq m would appear to be the ideal seed rate for many of the varieties when good seed-beds and growing conditions are conducive to quick plant emergence.”

• Find out which spring barley varieties yielded highest in your area in harvest 2015 using our interactive map.

Spring barley Recommended List 2016/17 new additions

Malting varieties

Feed varieties