United Kingdom

It has been a difficult growing season for crop 2024, with wet weather throughout the season. October and November saw up to 200% of the average rainfall, resulting in difficulty in planting, with winter barley tonnage reduced due to difficulty getting into the fields with machinery. The rain continued through to April, resulting in late planting of spring barley in both England and Scotland.

The wet weather is still ongoing, with the UK seeing more rain over the last couple of weeks, with more forecast in the coming days. This has delayed winter barley harvest in England, which is starting to ripen, leaving farmers waiting for a dry spell. We have seen the first load of winter barley over our weighbridge at Great Ryburgh today, with high moisture, but reasonable grain size. However, it is likely that overall, the winter barley will be variable in quality, with some reports of thinner grains elsewhere. Spring barley has been battered a little bit by some of the storms that we have seen across the country, with some barley lying flat and bending having been pushed over by the wind.

Despite this, we are optimistic of the spring barley quality, with harvest of these being a few weeks away. In summary, we are expecting an average year in terms of yield and quality, which is an improvement on 2023 crop, but some sunshine would be much appreciated in the coming weeks.

EUROPE

The rain is not isolated to the UK, and can be seen across Europe. This has resulted in poorer crop ratings, with higher proteins due to lower yields.  Harvest is underway in France, with winter barley and autumn planted spring barley yielding approximately 10% lower than the 5 year average. Although yields are down, the quality of the available barley is of usable quality. It is expected that we will see a similar story across Denmark and Sweden also.  Poland has seen a reasonable harvest so far, with good quality of winter barley taken in to our site in Bydgoszcz.