food & drink LG Diablo delivers for distillers
Protecting our environment
By Mairi Gougeon
LG Diablo could become the number one spring barley variety in Scotland in the next two to three years, if it maintains the strong performance seen so far on-farm and throughout the malting process. That is the view of Bairds Malt commercial director, Eddie Douglas, who has been impressed with the variety’s consistent quality and good yield potential, even when it is grown further north in the UK. “We were initially wary of LG Diablo’s slightly later maturity, so in the first year, limited our area to the Lothians and Borders region, before trying it in Aberdeenshire the following year. It performed well in both areas; so well that the variety now makes up 50% of the volume at one of our intake points
in Aberdeenshire, and last harvest we saw good crops from as far north as the Moray Coast.” Looking back, he notes that Optic’s maturity used to be deemed “too late” for Scotland, but it soon went on to become an established variety across the country. “LG Diablo’s later maturity is something to watch, but it shouldn’t be an issue. I could see it being the number one variety in Scotland within the next two to three years, if performance is similar to the past three seasons.” Indeed, Mr Douglas believes LG Diablo may have potential for growers even further north, into the Black Isle region, so will be trialling it at the Bairds Malt variety screening site near Inverness this spring.
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Our vision for the future of rural Scotland is a positive one. We see our land managers and world-class producers thriving, while backing our worldleading climate change agenda and our response to the biodiversity crisis. We want to provide them with the help to do this. The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) was launched to promote land management practices which protect and enhance Scotland’s natural heritage, improve water quality, manage flood risk and mitigate and adapt to climate change. AECS has provided almost 3,000 applicants with around £243 million since it launched. With the 2021 round, more than 600 rural businesses with projects that protect the environment and mitigate the impact of climate change will share £30 million. This funding for the sector has helped us restore and enhance nature through increased biodiversity, improved soils and contributions to mitigating climate change at the same time as providing high quality, locally produced food.
In October 2021, I announced the extension of the scheme up to 2024 with a new round opening in each new calendar year. Applications for the 2022 round opened on 24 January and will close on 29 April. Farmers and crofters can apply for support for conversion to and maintenance of organic land, alongside a suite of other measures aimed at promoting low carbon farming and protecting the environment. I’d like to thank those who have applied for the scheme and clearly understand the importance of doing what we can to mitigate climate change. AECS continues to play an important role in meeting these commitments and it also supports the ambition of doubling the amount of land under organic management, set out in the Programme for Government 2021-22. I would encourage people to apply for the next round of the scheme to continue this work. For more information on the scheme and how to apply search for AECS on https:// www.ruralpayments.org/.
