SOME DRIER periods have allowed the knives to be out for winter barley crops and, so far, quality and nitrogens have largely been acceptable for malting.

Yields are variable but this may be because crops grown on light soils are usually the first to be harvested. However, there does appear to be more straw than predicted behind the combine, which is in demand and prices reflect this situation. 
Across the EU, malting barley production is forecast at 10m tonnes, which is 4.4m tonnes down on last year, but some of this reduction will be offset by larger carryover stocks than usual. This includes 5.7m tonnes of barley currently in intervention stores and which possibly might come onto the market place to replace some of the reduced production. 
However, it seems that the EU does not intend to let intervention stocks comwe on to the market at this stage and will wait to see how harvest progresses before making any decisions. 
It is reckoned that 10% of the UK winter barley has been completed to date and, according to the HGCA, yields are slightly below average. But later and better crops on heavier land could uplift yields accordingly. 
Just to add a bit of spice to that, is the fact that UK feed barley ex-farm rose by £6.40 per tonne to average £96 this past week.
The LIFFE wheat futures rose £4.95 on the week to £133.95, the highest since January, 2009, for November, 2010 and it’s up £2 to £126.75 for November, 2011. 
The UK ex farm price for feed wheat was also up, this time by £8.70 to £116.60 and for bread makers it was up £9.80 to £129. Feed wheat, post harvest, is worth around £135 in the north of Scotland. 
There has been the odd field of wheat cut in England, but not enough to gauge quantity or quality. In France, 33% of wheat has been combined, with quality good but yield 10% lower than 2009.