Extreme weather is a key concern for malting barley growers, according to a new survey. Will Frazer looks at the findings

A new survey conducted by Farmers Weekly in association with the brewer, Molson Coors, highlights how the recent drier springs is making it more difficult for malting barley growers to fulfil contract specifications.

Respondents to the survey stated that increasingly variable weather and dry springs were making it hard to achieve the correct nitrogen levels. “The quality of our spring barley can be badly affected by low rainfall,” said one respondent. “Extreme weather is making it difficult to achieve consistent nitrogen levels.”

Another added: “Meeting quality criteria in the very extreme types of weather cycles we are currently experiencing is causing supply shortfall issues and financial penalties.”

For more than 90% of the respondents, these changes (earlier springs and drier summers) in seasonality have significantly impacted the timing of their field operations and their yields.

Many acknowledged that there was nothing they could do to reduce the impact of dry spells and most (59%) said they had no plans to invest in tools and equipment to monitor and measure water use. However, some had already adopted new practices in response to the problem. These included earlier drilling, irrigation and reducing inputs once it looked like maximum crop potential was not achievable.

Risk and reward

Malting barley is still a profitable crop to grow, said 85% of respondents. However, almost 40% felt that contract terms and potential profit margin were risks to growing the crop, with the balance between risk and reward a fine one.

More than a third (35%) of growers felt contract terms were a risk to growing malting barley. One of the key concerns was a lack of flexibility built into contracts to account for changes in the market. Longer term fixed-price contracts meant buyers ended up having too much control.

Comments included: “The local merchant and purchaser for the area is looking to secure supply over the long term, without the flexibility in the contract to accommodate market improvements.”

Respondents also felt there was too much control by end users, which meant that there was a disproportionate risk of having a whole crop rejected. “A small deviation from contract specification can be disproportionately costly to the likely reward of growing the crop.”

Collaboration

While many have not been investing in equipment, most were increasingly open to collaboration and sharing information. More than three-quarters were interested in more collaborative approaches to growing with other farmers. about 40% share the margin and profitability of their crop with other farmers.

Those respondents interested in collaboration said: “We are not in competition with each other, so should work together more.” Another added: “We are stronger and can learn more together, I buy and sell almost everything via co-ops.”

However, not all respondents agreed that better and more collaboration was the route forward. Concerns included a lack of common objectives, time constraints, competition and a perception that farmers were too parochial.

The future

So what does the future hold for the British malting barley crop? Of those surveyed, 17% expected to grow less malting barley in the next five years, while only 14% expected to expand their area. The bulk of respondents did not expect to alter their rotation, but most felt that wheat was a more profitable crop to be growing.

For those saying they would be growing less malting barley in the next five years, the prime reasons were other crops were more profitable, lack of reliability and difficulty in achieving the correct nitrogen levels.

However, spreading the harvest workload and the importance of malting barley as part of the rotational grass weed strategy were good reasons for growing more malting barley in the next five years, said respondents.

Commenting on the results, Molson Coors raw materials manager, Jerry Dyson said: “Weather always plays a major role in both the availability and the quality of malting barley and this was brought into sharp focus most recently with the winter malting barley crop of 2011. The very dry spring meant that the winter barley crop had a high nitrogen level, which significantly reduced its value for brewing.”

As the results suggested, collaboration between growers could ensure a more reliable supply of malting barley. The Molson Coors Grower Group has demonstrated how this method can be effective.

But what else can be done? NFU Combinable Crops Advisor, Guy Gagen, pointed out that there has been little improvement over the last decade in malting barley varieties, due to a lack of funding for applied research.

This has made it harder for growers to be resilient to changing market and weather conditions. And as the global brewing industry continues to consolidate, British growers, used to growing high specification crops for a global market, could find themselves increasingly marginalised.

“It’s not all bad news, but it is a worsening situation”, he said.

So, increasing agricultural research spending on applied research could be one answer. But that still leaves progress a long way off.

Malting barley sector

• The area of barley grown has steadily declined over the last three decades, with 1.98m ha of barley planted in 1984 compared with only 0.9m ha in 2010.

• Production has fallen from 11m tonnes in 1984 to 5.25m tonnes in 2010

• The total value of barley production is down by about half, from £1,152m to £510m over the same period.