UK: Spring barley are forecast to increase this year to the highest since at least the 1990s

The wet weather which devastated the UK's latest wheat harvest has raised the likelihood of another below-par crop in 2013 by cutting plantings to the lowest in more than a decade - while raising the threat of spring barley seed supplies running dry, Agrimoney.com reported on November, 28.

The persistence of rain after the wettest summer in a century has cut British farmers' expectations for wheat area - usually autumn sown - to 1.756 mln hectares, a drop of 11.9% year on year, and the lowest since 2000-01, a survey by the Andersons Centre said.

"Drilling conditions have been some of the worst in memory due to continuously heavy rain and poor soil conditions," the consultancy said.

Indeed, harvested area could be lower, "when waterlogged patches and slug damaged areas in fields that will not justify redrilling are accounted for".

Winter barley sowings also look set to be hit by the poor conditions, seen down 9.1% at 350,000 hectares.

However, "as a result, the spring barley area is forecast to the higher", Andersons said, soaring to 856,000 hectares, by far the highest since at least the 1990s.

British plantings of spring barley, the source of malting barley supplies, have not reached even 600,000 hectares any year since records going back to 1999.

Indeed, the extent of sowing ambitions is so high that seed merchants may prove unable to fulfil it.

"Seed availability could change this [planting] scenario, with land destined for spring barley also likely to be cropped with spring wheat or spring oats should there be insufficient seed available."

30 November, 2012