Following the Malting Barley Committee’s (MBC) autumn meeting, winter malting barley Buccaneer was granted full approval for brewing use.
Jonathan Arnold of Robin Appel Limited considers Buccaneer’s arrival as timely, given that the industry has been crying out for a higher yielding winter malting barley. With a big uplift in yield, it could help reverse recent trends as long as good contracts and premiums are available next year.
With a treated yield of 99%, the variety is the highest yielding 2-row winter malting variety on the 2024/25 RL – 3% ahead of Electrum and 6% ahead of Craft.
Jonathan has been tracking Buccaneer’s progress through the trials system and in his view, it has all the right agronomic credentials to become an established malting variety.
“Following last year’s challenging autumn establishment conditions, we saw a further reduction in the winter barley area, Buccaneer’s full malting approval for 2025 should make it of serious interest for growers either coming back to the crop, or those keen to switch from feed barley back to winter malting barley. It’s also worth noting that a good crop of winter barley can offer growers a nice risk-spreading strategy versus spring crops, given the type of hot, dry springs the UK experienced in 2020, 2022 and 2023,” notes Jonathan.
Laura Jones, malting barley trader at Saxon Agriculture, agrees that Buccaneer has the potential to reverse recent grower trends.
She adds: “For growers, it’s a definite step forward on yield over market leader Craft and has shown very strong resistance to both brown rust and Rhynchosporium with very low brackling levels. With good contracts available, I believe it will not only take market share away from other winter varieties, but also sway growers who had defected over to feed or hybrid barleys.”
She sees another strong winter malting barley variety offers growers and the brewing trade more choice, and that’s important for a sector that was starting to look exposed when dominated by one variety. “Although the cropping area for winter malting barley is comparatively small at the moment, there is certainly scope to produce more winter barley for general brewing production in the UK and for specialist export markets.
“Buccaneer offers low screenings and good specific weights making it popular with maltsters based on its suitability for producing roasted malts for craft beers, a growth sector in recent years. Whilst it sits nicely beside spring malting barley for general brewing production, winter malting barley is also becoming increasingly more important for producing speciality export malts.”
