Barley Makes a Comeback

Crop proves to be money maker when it makes malting grade

Jochum Wiersma, University of Minnesota Small Grains Specialist, wiers002@umn.ed

The once proud malting barley industry has been the Rodney Dangerfield of crops in this region the last several years: It hasn’t gotten much respect.  Barley seems to be making a modest comeback, however. There is a renewed interest in growing barley this year, thanks in part to more attractive contracts offered by malting barley buyers. 

As well, the crop has been getting more press in the region’s farm publications, with topics ranging from the continued frustration and battle to develop barley cultivars that are resistant to FHB/DON, to optimism, as demonstrated by the construction of a large elevator complex in Alvarado, Minn., designed to handle three million bushels of barley for a single malting company.

I have been reluctant to even talk much about barley and barley production in the past two years. That’s because during meetings with producers, after conducting a show-of-hands poll on whether anyone was interested in barley, I generally received a less than warm response.  I think it is fair to say that most of the lack of enthusiasm has been our inability to make malting grade, and the low price for feed barley.

For a more exact revenue comparison, I reviewed the net return per acre including government payments or cash rented land for wheat, barley, soybeans, and corn in the last five years for the Red River Valley, courtesy of figures from Dr. Bob Bollesen, of the Farm Business Management Program at Northland Community Technical College, Thief River Falls, Minn.

Although the number of fields or farms in the Red River Valley that provided data for barley was much smaller in comparison to the other three crops, I think it is valid to point out that:

1) Over a five-year period, wheat and barley were almost equally profitable (Tables 1 and 2).

2) Over a five-year period, corn and soybeans were more profitable than either wheat or barley (Tables 1 and 2).

3) The last two years barley has become as profitable as corn and soybean and more profitable than wheat (Table 2).

The assumption you have to make to reach the third conclusion is that you have to make malting grade to realize those numbers. The average value per bushel reported was $2.43 per bushel, which supports that assumption. 

It’s fair to say that the stringent market requirement with regard to DON levels has been very discouraging to malt barley production the last few years. I can empathize with producers who have been frustrated by this requirement, but I can also see the point of brewers and malters who must take a precautionary approach to food safety.  Malting companies are very capable of producing high quality malt with barley that has DON levels up to 2 or 3 ppm by blending with barley with little or no DON. However, you have to recognize that the malting companies will incur extra costs when forced to blend and the discounts reflect those extra costs.  It seems that communication and compromise will go a long way to help both barley buyers and sellers in the goal to keep the malting barley industry viable in the Northern Plains.

Given the current production and market climate, can we produce barley that will meet the grade requirements for malting, and can barley be a viable and competitive alternative to corn, wheat or soybeans? I think we can produce great malting barley in this region if:

1) The weather cooperates and allows for an early to average planting date with average precipitation throughout the season.

2) The market discount for barley with low levels of DON is reasonable.

 What agronomic practices can we adjust to improve our chances of producing malt barley? The answers are basically the same as for wheat.

1) Widen your rotation with crops that are not host to FHB, and do not plant barley after barley, wheat or corn.

2) Consider the use of a fungicide to reduce the impact of FHB.

Research has shown that if we focus on FHB, Folicur can reduce DON levels by 50%. Under light to moderate disease pressure, this will allow you to bring down the DON levels below that 2 to 3 ppm mark. However, similar to wheat, research has also shown that systemic fungicides like Folicur control the other leaf diseases like net blotch and spot blotch very well. The benefits of controlling these diseases are increases in yield, test weight and percentage plump.  Different from spring wheat, the optimum timing to apply a fungicide to suppress FHB in barley is at early heading (Feekes 10.3- 10.5), or as soon as the head has come completely out of the boot.

It will be interesting to see how this growing season turns out. The combination of a return to more normal weather patterns, the promise of good yields, and the continuation of attractive malt barley contracts may mean the return of barley as a viable option to the Northern Plains crop rotation.