These farmers will be obliged to deliver on their contracts if they agree to the hedging price. The indicated price as of Monday was €169 per tonne, which is about €35 ahead of the feed barley price.

The price will be dtermined by the MATIS milling wheat price at 12 noon on Wednesday.

While hedging has proven controversial since its inception in 2012 with low uptake in the last two years, it is likely that this attractive price will see a strong response from Boortmalt growers.