Boortmalt malting barley growers received texts earlier this week to state temporary intake closures.

This generated huge fears among growers, especially those who had cut through the harvest with the intention of delivering their grain later when finished cutting.

Growers are especially nervous about intake decisions this year, given the loss of some of the malting capacity at the Athy plant.

However, Boortmalt has confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal that the intake closures are temporary and that it will reopen on Thursday of this week.

This will be welcome news for growers but high rejections still leave fears as to where this barley will go as many other merchants are unwilling to take additional barley due to the big barley harvest.