New malting winter barley variety Flagon is yielding slightly more than current standard Pearl as initial loads come into Camgrain’s store.

“Most farmers are pleased with their yields,” the co-op group’s Philip Darke said. “Flagon is yielding slightly more than 3t/acre while Pearl is slightly less.”

Grain quality was good with Flagon averaging 1.73% nitrogen and Pearl 1.82%. “There have been one or two [barley] mosaic [virus] problems around.”

The hot weather didn’t appear to have affected winter barley too much, he suggested. “But it’s probably hurting the spring barley and wheats.

“We’re all expecting the spring barley to be very variable depending on how much rainfall its had.”

Rain in the Cambridge area had been very patchy ranging from places with virtually none over the past month to up to 70mm. “You can really seen the difference on farm in the wheats. At the moment we want the wheats not to be ready – the wheats that are green at the moment should be good.”