THE key observations when it comes to barley from the 2019/20 harvest, according to CBH Group, was a continued preference of Spartacus and Planet and a significant shift away from La Trobe and Scope.
Site segregation plans from CBH reflected this trend with decreasing segregations offered for La Trobe and Scope, while the distribution of segregations also reflected regional preferences for the different varieties.
Speaking at the Grains Industry Association of Western Australia's (GIWA) 2020 Barley Forum in Perth last week, CBH head of grain technology Craig McClure said in 2018, Spartacus was only about 10 per cent of segregations.
"Last harvest, Spartacus and Planet represented 60pc of total tonnes received with the top seven varieties representing about 92pc of total tonnes received," Mr McClure said.
"Quality was well below the five-year average with about 73pc of tonnes received being feed grade, plus the quality, specifically high screenings, resulted in CBH introducing MALT2 segs.
"During the 2019/20 harvest, receivals were interrupted by late season rain events otherwise well distributed over the season."
The 2020/21 Paddock Planner estimates forecast a continuation of historical trends with Spartacus and Planet continuing to be the dominant plantings, plus small hectares of Buff and Maximus have been planted.
La Trobe and Scope are continuing to trend downwards, while Bass and Baudin plantings are extremely small.
Mr McClure said about 50pc of hectares had been entered into Paddock Planner for this year.
"The importance of Paddock Planner for us is to get estimates and put in place segregations that align with those estimates and make sure we can get the grain coming into our supply chain," he said.
"It's quite important that we prepare the segregation plans based on paddock planner estimates and that then translates to receivals."
According to its observations over the past five years, CBH said growers were quick to shift varietal preferences, but segregation plans need to work on a three-year cycle.
"It is our expectation that Buff and Maximus will become the dominant varieties in coming years and in an ideal model, there should be a defined limit on the number of malt segs available, ideally about six Malt1 and no Malt2," Mr McClure said.
"This number needs to balance market demands, grower flexibility and operating costs for CBH, while forcing the continued practical rationalisation of old varieties."
Going forward, CBH sees the malting barley segregation plan needing to span two years out, with the current 12 months to be a fine-tuning of the agreed segregation plan based on Paddock Planner data and site plans becoming more solid as harvest approached.
The subsequent harvest would be a fluid estimate which gives growers the ability to have an indicative harvest plan 12 months ahead, with this ideally being added as an additional feature in Paddock Planner.