Barley production is estimated at 6.61M tonnes, with spring barley yields particularly high, HGCA reported on October 13. Total barley plantings in the UK are fractionally down in 2003 at 1.094M ha. In 2003, UK barley plantings shifted away from winter sown crops in favour of a greater spring sown area.Winter plantings in 2003 reached 0.47M ha, down 15 percent, while the planted spring area was 0.63M ha in 2003, up 13 percent. The switch in plantings possibly reflect the improvement in malting barley premiums through last season, and the reduced winter grain plantings due to wet weather.

Unlike the wheat crop which saw lower yields, barley yields rose in 2003.The UK total barley yield reached 6t/ha, up 9 percent on 2002 even with a bigger share of spring crops. Of this, winter barley was 6.4t/ha (up 2 percent) and spring barley 5.8t/ha (up 19 percent).

The total UK barley crop reached 6.61M tonnes, up 8 percent on 2002, as a result. However, the winter crop actually fell in 2003 to 2.98M tonnes, (a fall of 13 percent), while the spring crop accounted for 3.63M tonnes, a rise of 35 percent on 2002.The much larger spring crop is particularly due to the significantly higher yields, which are the highest average yields ever recorded for the UK.

On a regional basis, England harvested 4.28M tonnes of barley in 2003 while Scotland harvested 2.04M tonnes. Of this, England harvested 2.48M tonnes of winter barley and 1.80M tonnes of spring barley. Scotland harvested 0.43M tonnes of winter barley and 1.61M tonnes of spring barley.

For barley, the HGCA quality survey shows that the average barley moisture content is coincidentally 14.5 percent. This is because a larger proportion of the crop is harvested in the north and Scotland.Thus the moisture adjustment is potentially not an issue for the barley estimate.

17 October, 2003