ISSUE 5
January 1997

Culprit behind barley discounts needs federal attention

Gerald Lacey, Campbell, MN MBGA President
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Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.

 Minnesota’s 1996 barley crop was once again hit by scab. Although scab does not decrease the yield in barley as it does in wheat, the lost income because of DON discounts is much more severe. Any farmer who has delivered good malting barley to the market and has had to accept a feed barley price because of the DON discounts will tell you, scab is definitely an economic problem for barley farmers.

When producers have to accept prices .20 - $1.00 per bushel less for their product, the losses add up in a hurry. Compute these discounts on a per-acre basis and producers are losing anywhere from $14 - $70 per acre. Barley farmers cannot sustain these types of losses.

In this state legislative session, the Minnesota Barley Growers and the Minnesota Wheat Growers will urge lawmakers to continue research in the development of scab tolerant varieties.

The Minnesota Barley Growers and the Minnesota Wheat Growers will also be putting together a scab research package to combat scab on a national basis. We will be joining forces with the soft red winter wheat producers who also were devastated by scab this past growing season to convince the federal government to allocate funds for scab research.

This will not be an easy task given the cutbacks in research at the national level. But we, as growers and an industry, have a problem that has to be solved.
Copyright Prairie
Grains Magazine

January 1997