UK: Harvest begins as barley prices improve

Combines have begun to roll into the first of the new crop barley against a background of improving prices for harvest grain, Farmers Weekly reported July 16.

Grainfarmers’ David Doyle said the wet weather had caused a “prolonged July” and circumstances had been compounded by April’s long, dry spell.

Barley was worth £105/t off the combine, depending on location, Mr Doyle said.

While Britain was only at the beginning of its harvest campaign, combines had cut a considerable amount of barley, but the long period of wet weather had hit quality, particularky in France and Germany.

Jonathan Hoyland, Frontier’s barley and oat manager, said as-available barley was worth £103-£105 in the south of England, while £104-£106/t was achievable further north.

“We expect to have moved about 5000t by the end of the week, mainly south of the M4 with a little bit in East Anglia. We’ve seen one or two malting samples and have been pleasantly surprised with Nitrogen results, but it is still very early days.”

18 July, 2007