UK: Final quality survey shows improved nitrogen content in barley

Final crop quality survey results show varying quality across regions, HGCA reported earlier this week.

For barley, nitrogen content has improved between provisional and final results indicating the better performance of the later harvested spring barley crop. A key feature of GB 2011 barley quality is the variability across regions with the Scottish crop achieving better results than the drought affected crops in the South and East.

GB winter barley varieties are showing high nitrogen content at 1.89% on average, higher than both the 3-year average (1.69%), and 2010 levels (1.75%).

GB spring barley varieties have much lower nitrogen content at 1.66%. These levels are higher than both the 3-year average (1.57%) and 2010 (1.59%).

Winter barley varieties have a slightly higher specific weight than spring barley, with the average GB weight at 66.5kg/hl compared to 66.35kg/hl for spring barley.

Screening results were good for both varieties. Winter barley varieties were slightly larger, with 1.2% of grain fitting through a 2.25mm sieve, compared to 1.5% of spring barley.

25 November, 2011