Approval puts more wind in sails for Buccaneer

• Full malting status for winter barley

• Strong yields and disease resistance

• ‘Serious interest’ for barley growers

High-yielding winter barley Buccaneer has achieved full malting status for brewing.

The two-row variety from Elsoms Seeds was approved at the Malting Barley Committee’s autumn meeting on 4 November.  With a treated yield of 99%, it is the highest yielding two-row winter malting variety on the 2024/25 recommended list.

Bucanneer’s full approval status offers winter barley growers more varietal choice as they look to autumn 2025 drilling, says Jonathan Arnold, joint managing director at independent grain merchant Robin Appel.

“Buccaneer’s arrival is definitely timely, given that the industry has been crying out for a higher yielding winter malting barley. We’ve been tracking it through the trials system and it has all the credentials to become an established malting variety.”

Making the switch

Recent years have seen a noticeable lack of new winter malting barley varieties coming on to the recommended list. With historically lower yields and low premiums, some growers have switched to hybrid and higher yielding feed barley varieties.

But Mr Arnold says Buccaneer could help to reverse that trend – especially if good contracts and premiums are available next year. Its untreated yield competes well with the untreated yields offered by many winter feed barleys, he adds.

“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.

Risk strategy

“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 hot, dry springs in 2020, 2022 and 2023.”

Laura Jones, malting barley trader at Saxon Agriculture, agrees that Buccaneer has the potential to spark an increase in the winter barley area. Less of the crop has been sown following challenging autumn establishment conditions, she points out.

Business ethos

Saxon Agriculture has a strong business ethos in supporting promising new varieties coming through the system, says Ms Jones. For growers, Buccanner is a definite step forward on yield, she explains.

“When it became likely that Buccaneer would go onto the recommended list in 2023, we made a strategic decision to place a significant area of the crop in the ground for crop 2024 demonstrating our confidence and belief in the variety.”

As well as performing well in terms of yield, Buccanneer has shown strong resistance to both brown rust and rhynchosporium with low brackling.

Strong contender

“With good contracts available, I believe it will not only take market share away from other winter malting barleys, but also sway growers who had defected over to feed or hybrid barleys,” says Ms Jones.

“Another strong winter malting barley variety in the market offers growers and brewers 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 also 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.

“While it sits nicely besides spring malting barley for general brewing production, winter malting barley is also becoming increasingly more important for producing speciality export malts,” says Ms Jones.

“Ultimately, growers need strong varieties supported by contracts with good premiums to incentivise them. In Buccaneer, they have an exceptional winter malting barley with no obvious weaknesses.”