HUMANS DON’T like it, animals don’t like it and neither do little seedlings.

Yes, there is nothing worse than a cold, damp bed.

With only 2mm of rain in the last 15 days in the Borders, spring work is making progress but frosty nights and cold winds means the soil is not heating up as normal.

Already, there are quite a few spring sown cereal crops being re-sown into seed beds that became compacted due to the heavy rain at the end of last month and have not looked good since then. Maincrop potato planting is getting underway, but only on the lighter soils that are only now just dry enough to allow planting to take place.

Following on from Easter, when the cereal markets were quieter than normal there has been some wheat export activity and, if this continues, then the UK surplus of 2.2m tonnes might just be cleared. It’ll be a nail biter right up to the end of the old crop year.

With regard to the new crop, global wheat stocks are still at an eight-year high. EU27 wheat production is unchanged at 134m tonnes and UK wheat production is put at 16m tonnes with an export capability forecast at 2.57m tonnes. Spain is expected to take a substantial quantity from the UK and is increasing imports from the EU by 400,000 tonnes up to a total of 4.4m tonnes.

The November, 2010, LIFFE feed wheat futures were up £2.35 last week to £104.50 and for 2011 stand at £112.75, down 25p.

Rather unexpectedly, the barley market has picked up since Easter by around £2.50 per tonne, as compounders are using it in rations as a cheaper option to wheat. The cold winter and spring has meant that feed mills are still working overtime because of a lack of grass.

With currency strengthening this past week, it has meant that the free market price and the Intervention price are now similar at around £81 per tonne, depending on location. A total of 157,774 tonnes of UK barley was offered into Intervention, but 16,693 tonnes was rejected, leaving 141,081 tonnes in store.

Across Europe, Intervention offers total 4.6m tonnes for the year to date. On the ‘real’ consumption side of the equation, UK brewers’, maltsters’ and distillers’ cumulative use of barley for 2009/10 has reached 896,000 tonnes, which is 14% down on the previous year. Animal feed use totalled 547,000 tonnes, which is 19% up on last year.

The barley balance sheet points to a year end stock of around the five-year average of 900,000 tonnes, which will result in exports and Intervention stocks of 1.994 million tonnes – the highest for 12 years.

But, spring barley acreage is well down, with UK certified barley seed total at 18,500 tonnes this year compared to 30,700 tonnes last yea – that’s a 40% reduction year on year. In Europe, due to high fertiliser and chemical costs, Germany will have a reduced spring barley crop of 17% for this coming year and France is expected to be down by 11%. So, maybe the market will ease its way into balance – but it will take a long time.