Irish cereal farmers are confident they can grow enough malting barley to satisfy demand this year despite a scarcity of seed.

Speaking at a conference at Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Eoin McDonald, an agronomist from Cooladine Farms Ltd, said; “The industry moved early to secure seed supplies and we are confident there is sufficient. However we are conscious of the overall seed shortage and are encouraging growers to plant in excellent soil conditions to make the most of the available seed.”

Jonathan Roberts, a procurement manager in Boortmalt, told the conference the demand for malting barley is growing every year. He said; “The growth in the drinks industry is continuing and our customers are delighted with the quality of Irish barley”.

However, he added there are sustainability requests coming through the supply chain, particularly around carbon footprinting.

“Consumer demands and corporate responsibility in the area of sustainability, especially around carbon footprinting is becoming a stronger driver for change in the industry.” he explained.

Addressing the conference Dr Richie Hackett, a crops researcher for Teagasc, outlined where liquid nitrogen, or Urea Ammonium Nitrate (UAN) fits into the production of malting barley crops. Richie Hackett said that the liquid nitrogen will work equally as well as other nitrogen sources, but growers need to be careful using the product in dry conditions as it is more susceptible to volatilisation than CAN.

New figures from Teagasc show that variable costs are falling for Irish cereal growers.

This year the indicative variable costs associated with winter wheat are €1,711/ha which is down from last year's respective estimates of €2,199/ha.

This was largely put down to a fall in the cost of materials, machinery hire and miscellaneous costs. The biggest drop was fertiliser which came down €498/ha for feed wheat and €370/ha. The break even yield not including straw sales, moved down from 9.2t/ha in 2023 to 8.1t/ha in 2024 for winter wheat.

Winter barley variable costs are back by €345/ha with a break even yield of 8.1t/ha. Spring barley variable costs were €1,318/ha which is down from €1,589/ha in 2023 with a new break even yield of 6.6t/ha. Malting barley had a break even yield of 5.8t/ha assuming a premium of €40/t over feed price. If a yield of 7.5t/ha was to be achieved then the estimated gross margin of €706/ha is envisaged from a variable cost of €1,305/ha.