If Scottish tipplers don't want a shortage of scotch and beer, distillers and brewers will have to pay more for specialty barley, a farmers' union is warning.

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The issue of the price of malting barley has been raised every year for the past several, but the president of the National Farmers Union Scotland, John Kinnaird told The Scotsman this year is it.

Beginning in January, farmers will get a single annual support payment instead of a range of crop and livestock production subsidies. Kinnaird said if such a specialty crop as malting barley doesn't earn a decent premium, growers will simply drop it.

The average cost of production has been estimated at $140 per ton, although a few years ago the NFU set a "$170 a ton or bust" target, saying such a price level only contributed a few cents to the cost of a bottle of whisky.

"At this stage I'm unlikely to sow malting barley next spring, and that will be a first," Kinnaird said.