Any Demand For This Years Malting Barley ?

[marsh man]

Reading in the local paper yesterday there was an interesting article on the demand , or should I say the lack of demand for malting barley during these troubled times , they were interviewing the farm manager on the Holkham estate , he was saying in his grain store he have still got 6500 tons of malting barley as there is very little demand from the brewers with all the pubs and restaurants still under lockdown , even though we are still in May, he predict with all this dry and hot weather we are getting week after week we could see a early start to this years harvest which could be as early as just over five weeks away .

If we don't get a second wave with the virus the pubs should be back open around the forth of July but will it be to late to get a fair price for this years harvest ? 

[markm]

A friend of mine delivers for Simpson Malt (Scottish borders) and he’s back full time. Breweries and distillery back to full production. 
 

I would have thought consumption would be the same if not more during the last few months, people just drinking at home instead. 

[7daysinaweek]

I cannot say about Barley MM, how long will it hold for kept dry? I wonder what else it can be used for?

It would appear other aspects of farming have been hit with the CV19 outbreak. One of my permissions grows baking potatoes for Tescos, among a few other crops but mainly Spuds. I spoke to the farmer a few months ago and he told me the baking potato job had gone to pot. He got a phone call out of the blue from the local agent/buyer and was told on the same morning that the plant had been shut overnight and they would not be taking any spuds at all for the present time due to lack of demand in the CV19 pandemic. He said at £2500 and an acre of spuds in the ground it is a hefty loss for him, he has many contacts around the country and says he had done a lot of enquiries and could not move them on without a significant loss.

Another struggle for many Farmers.

[marsh man]

16 hours ago, 7daysinaweek said:

I cannot say about Barley MM, how long will it hold for kept dry? I wonder what else it can be used for?

It would appear other aspects of farming have been hit with the CV19 outbreak. One of my permissions grows baking potatoes for Tescos, among a few other crops but mainly Spuds. I spoke to the farmer a few months ago and he told me the baking potato job had gone to pot. He got a phone call out of the blue from the local agent/buyer and was told on the same morning that the plant had been shut overnight and they would not be taking any spuds at all for the present time due to lack of demand in the CV19 pandemic. He said at £2500 and an acre of spuds in the ground it is a hefty loss for him, he has many contacts around the country and says he had done a lot of enquiries and could not move them on without a significant loss.

Another struggle for many Farmers.

There was also mention about spuds , some of the big potato growers in Norfolk who supply the catering trade and fish and chip shops had the same problem , a store full of spuds that nobody wants , it also stated one farmer who dug up some late spuds took two ton down to the community building and gave them away for free , if they wanted they could leave a small donation to the Air Ambulance .

And yet some places that were selling them were asking £10 and over a bag ? , where we went yesterday was a very good garden centre , everything is priced fairly except the spuds , only a year or so ago there spuds were £5 a 25 kilo bag ,or three bags for a tenner , yesterday they had bagged all there spuds into 2 1/2 kilo bags for £1.50 a bag , this make them £15.00 for 25 kilos , if spuds were in short supply I could understand the high price but if people are prepared to pay that sort of money then good luck to them .

[lakeside1000]

We shop for our veg at a local farm shop, he is having real problems getting any fresh veg and in particular spuds, we had 5 kilos last week, had one feed from them and threw the rest away as they went soft and started sprouting almost as soon as we got them home,

Just back on the barley subject, I passed a large field yesterday which is already going gold and it was covered in pigeons, some power cables over the crop had so many on the lines , they were sagging near to breaking, I know the farmer who owns the land but only get the odd day shooting on his land as he has some 'so called' regular shooters, but in all the time I spend up and down that lane I have never seen anyone on there shooting, still at least I have plenty of other places to shoot but this one is 5 minutes from my house, never mind ay. so just packing the car for another afternoon session on the peas, must remember to pack the sun shade !!!!

[7daysinaweek]

6 hours ago, marsh man said:

There was also mention about spuds , some of the big potato growers in Norfolk who supply the catering trade and fish and chip shops had the same problem , a store full of spuds that nobody wants , it also stated one farmer who dug up some late spuds took two ton down to the community building and gave them away for free , if they wanted they could leave a small donation to the Air Ambulance .

And yet some places that were selling them were asking £10 and over a bag ? , where we went yesterday was a very good garden centre , everything is priced fairly except the spuds , only a year or so ago there spuds were £5 a 25 kilo bag ,or three bags for a tenner , yesterday they had bagged all there spuds into 2 1/2 kilo bags for £1.50 a bag , this make them £15.00 for 25 kilos , if spuds were in short supply I could understand the high price but if people are prepared to pay that sort of money then good luck to them .

It appears it not a local problem then. I have known several spud farmers who each year would "put up" large tonnage, one farmer would store up to 200 tons after harvest, he would keep them bagged and palleted until after Christmas and once told me that in Jan , Feb and March he could double his profits per tonnage. Looks like the Covid Job has had an overall impact on demand from the wholesaler.  The garden centre appear to be capitilising on people and capturing them making multiple purchases in one trip out as opposed to travelling to another shop for cheaper price spuds.

atb

7diaw

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, my friends farm sold the barley for cattle feed, just a small return on profit