The early indications from Teagasc are that malting barley will vie with winter wheat as the top cereal crop grown in Ireland this year, in terms of net margin.

The current figures suggest that malting barley  – with an assumed feed inclusion – is coming in with an average net margin of €2,107/ha; the equivalent figure for winter wheat is €2,103/ha.

Teagasc is not including fixed costs at this stage for any cereal enterprise.

Net margin

Back in 2018, spring malting barley crops were generating a net margin of €527/ac with wheat coming in at €874/ac.

So, the last four years have seen malting barley enterprises rise from fourth in the margin rankings, to their current position.

It is thought that the Teagasc/Boortmalt Joint Advisory Programme, targeting the specific research and advisory needs of malting barley growers, has been to the fore in driving this progress. 

The programme advisor, Teagasc’s Eoin Lyons, believes that more work can be done to further strengthen margins within the sector.

The programme, which ran for an initial three years, has been extended for a further three.

Its aims are: To increase the profitability of malting barley; deliver more brewing and distilling barley within specifications; increase the use of effective nutrient management planning for malting crops; and establish a targeted knowledge transfer programme for growers.

Lyons points to the establishment of monitor farms throughout the malting barley catchment areas, allied to the development of bespoke research projects, as being core to the delivery of improved enterprise margins.

Nitrogen application for

One key, stand-out success of this work has been the identification of specific nitrogen application rates for growers in their respective localities.

In turn, this has led to much lower rejection rates within crops of malting barley.

Comprehensive soil analysis is another important feature of the Teagasc/Boortmalt development programme.

And again, this is showing-up the need for bespoke – and different – crop/soil nutrition programmes across the various spring malting barley production areas.

E.g., the latest soil testing results is confirming that, in Wexford, 52% of soils are optimal from a pH perspective while 33% and 78% of soils analysed are optimal from a phosphorous (P) and potash (K) perspective respectively.

In Kildare, however, 93% of soils have an optimal pH value, while 82% and 49% are optimal for P and K.

The Teagasc/Boortmalt programme is also assessing the feasibility of growing winter barley varieties for malting.

Currently, around 15% of the malt produced in Ireland is derived from winter barley crops.

A key drawback in this regard has been the failure, up to this point, of identifying a winter barely variety that is suitable for distilling purposes.