By Ewan Pate

HARVEST in England and France is already proving disappointing in terms of quantity and quality, according to breeders from one of Europe’s leading seed houses.

This applies particularly to winter barley, with bushel weights proving exceptionally light, according to Ron Granger, the arable technical manager with Limagrain.

He blamed a damp, mild winter followed by poor sunlight and even more rain during the early summer. For instance, most of the main cereal growing areas in England had 150mm (six inches) of rain in June alone.

“The winter conditions favoured the development of septoria and yellow rust on wheat. Septoria tritici is still the biggest yield robber in Scotland, but new races of yellow rust are attacking previously unaffected varieties,” Mr Grainger said.

This proved challenging for the 19 candidate varieties on trial in the UK, with many succumbing badly to rust this season. “Interestingly, it is not as bad in Scotland this year," he pointed out.

"Last year, yellow rust was a problem right down the east coast of the UK. The problem is that the new Warrior races of rust keep spreading during the sort of cool spells which would have stopped older races in their tracks," Mr Granger added.

The breeder’s answer is to try and 'stack' two or three resistant genes rather than relying on single gene resistance to combat a fast moving target.

“We have always had to cope with disease 'race' changes, but this one has changed four times in five years. That is why we have to build as much resistance as we can into the gene pool,” said Mr Granger.

“It is important for growers to know the risk of growing a variety. If it is high risk for yellow rust, a four-spray programme from T0 to T4 will keep it under control, but at a cost. The other option is not to grow it at all and choose something with a lower risk factor.”

The Warrior race was initially rumoured to have come back to the UK on equipment from the war in Afghanistan, but Mr Granger thought it much more likely that it had been transported from the Himalayas in an unusually prevalent air stream. There were other variants present in Denmark and other Northern European countries which could yet challenge UK growers.

Turning to likely barley supply, Les Daubney – Limagrain’s arable marketing director – pointed to a number of conflicting factors. “Winter barley has been pretty disastrous in France this year in terms of yield and malting quality. On the other hand, the AHDB planting survey shows the UK spring barley area up by 6%,” he said.

Propino, a brewing variety, had the largest share of the 2016 certified seed market in the UK at 27%, with Concerto second at 21.9%. Concerto is, of course, completely dominant in Scotland and the distillers’ clear favourite.

English grown Concerto moving north, either as grain or malt, could put pressure on Scottish prices, but much would depend on quality. The move into spring barley in England had been driven partly by the CAP’s three-crop greening rules but more so by the need to combat blackgrass.

Winter cereal crops in the main cereal areas of the south are badly infested with blackgrass this year and the Limagrain team expected the move into spring cropping will continue.

Mr Daubney said: “We are also seeing spring barley as one of the few areas where yields are increasing in the fields, as well as in the trials.”

The Limagrain malting variety, Octavia, is now fully approved for brewing and distilling use and will be commercially available in 2017. Sienna is a year behind and has now proceeded to the next stage in the all-important malting tests.