This is a challenging time for the tillage sector, but I might ask when it has been much different. Pressures from weather, prices and costs combine to make the main challenge – financial.
For those who achieved good yields in 2019 and had locked a good amount of tonnage into better forward prices last backend, 2019 might have been quite a reasonable year.
We must always learn
One should never let a year go out without taking some lessons from its passing. The first half of the growing season showed us the benefits of having a dry summer last year followed by a dry winter.
Advanced winter crops looked well all spring and the slow late spring pulled back forward crops. I continue to believe that a slow cold spring is an advantage in helping to expand yield potential and the majority of crops turned out well in the end. I might also ask if excessive growth regulation had a negative effect of some fields in 2019?
By the time harvest came the symptoms were forgotten
Spring crops had a more challenging start, with wet delaying a proportion of planting once again. The spring rain was awkward without being excessive and early growth was slow for a while.
Yellowing of leaves quickly became widespread, suggesting BYDV infection, but the symptoms were atypical given that a full leaf was affected, but only one per plant generally. By the time harvest came, the symptoms were forgotten and yield levels generally impressed.
A low protein year
However, quality was a different issue, specifically protein levels in malting barley. Despite normal dressings and what seemed to be the possibility of higher residual soil N levels, grain protein levels turned out to be remarkably low and this led to all kinds of difficulties at intakes.
2019 just proved once again that it is impossible to dial up a specific spec of grain
Some growers were confined to only 30% of their contracts because they were delivering at a time when the majority or all of the grain being delivered was below the 9.3% threshold agreed as the transition between brewing and distilling grades.
In most regards, 2019 just proved once again that it is impossible to dial up a specific spec of grain when producing under the vagaries of God’s sky.
These problems may have been exaggerated by the unfortunate temporary loss of malting capacity at Boortmalt, but they are very real for those growers who lost the malting premium on 70% of their barley, largely because of when it was delivered during the season.
This year was yet another example of the great difficulty imposed by the operation of very specific thresholds in this business.
Communication
One of the most common criticisms levelled at the malting sector in recent years has been the lack of timely communication. This changed somewhat in the lead into 2019, with the agreed changes in the contract pricing system and the fact there was a very good forward price to report, which most growers availed of.
But communication to growers appeared to wane as the season progressed. While discussions to deal with ongoing issues relating to the loss of malting capacity were ongoing, these were not always communicated directly back to growers.
Failure to communicate allows rumours to grow and opinions to fester. While it is a challenge to communicate an evolving situation, as was the case this year, failure to do so leads to bad feeling and distrust.
And that is not good in a situation where two parties are trying hard to make the situation work.
One should always take a lesson or two from every growing season. Write it down somewhere, as it may pay not to forget it.The growing season was somewhat untypical and difficult to explain.Good communication must always be a central plank of successful negotiation.
This is a challenging time for the tillage sector, but I might ask when it has been much different. Pressures from weather, prices and costs combine to make the main challenge – financial.
For those who achieved good yields in 2019 and had locked a good amount of tonnage into better forward prices last backend, 2019 might have been quite a reasonable year.
We must always learn
One should never let a year go out without taking some lessons from its passing. The first half of the growing season showed us the benefits of having a dry summer last year followed by a dry winter.
Advanced winter crops looked well all spring and the slow late spring pulled back forward crops. I continue to believe that a slow cold spring is an advantage in helping to expand yield potential and the majority of crops turned out well in the end. I might also ask if excessive growth regulation had a negative effect of some fields in 2019?
By the time harvest came the symptoms were forgotten
Spring crops had a more challenging start, with wet delaying a proportion of planting once again. The spring rain was awkward without being excessive and early growth was slow for a while.
Yellowing of leaves quickly became widespread, suggesting BYDV infection, but the symptoms were atypical given that a full leaf was affected, but only one per plant generally. By the time harvest came, the symptoms were forgotten and yield levels generally impressed.
A low protein year
However, quality was a different issue, specifically protein levels in malting barley. Despite normal dressings and what seemed to be the possibility of higher residual soil N levels, grain protein levels turned out to be remarkably low and this led to all kinds of difficulties at intakes.
2019 just proved once again that it is impossible to dial up a specific spec of grain
Some growers were confined to only 30% of their contracts because they were delivering at a time when the majority or all of the grain being delivered was below the 9.3% threshold agreed as the transition between brewing and distilling grades.
In most regards, 2019 just proved once again that it is impossible to dial up a specific spec of grain when producing under the vagaries of God’s sky.
These problems may have been exaggerated by the unfortunate temporary loss of malting capacity at Boortmalt, but they are very real for those growers who lost the malting premium on 70% of their barley, largely because of when it was delivered during the season.
This year was yet another example of the great difficulty imposed by the operation of very specific thresholds in this business.
Communication
One of the most common criticisms levelled at the malting sector in recent years has been the lack of timely communication. This changed somewhat in the lead into 2019, with the agreed changes in the contract pricing system and the fact there was a very good forward price to report, which most growers availed of.
But communication to growers appeared to wane as the season progressed. While discussions to deal with ongoing issues relating to the loss of malting capacity were ongoing, these were not always communicated directly back to growers.
Failure to communicate allows rumours to grow and opinions to fester. While it is a challenge to communicate an evolving situation, as was the case this year, failure to do so leads to bad feeling and distrust.
And that is not good in a situation where two parties are trying hard to make the situation work.
One should always take a lesson or two from every growing season. Write it down somewhere, as it may pay not to forget it.The growing season was somewhat untypical and difficult to explain.Good communication must always be a central plank of successful negotiation. 
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: