Malt barley

[Ache4Acres]

With the rain comes a chance to plan for next year. We have never grown barley (not for 20 years anyway) and thinking maybe some malt barley would work in the rotation. Some folks seem to be malt kings and other can't grow it at all, Is 2017 the year of malt barley?

[Partners]

Probably..most have feed here after seeding 1/2 there farms to bly this yr.will they chance it again?

[Oliver88]

Which variety?
Metcalf, Copeland, Legacy, Synergy?

[freewheat]

Buy a lotto ticket. It is the same thing. People are funny, in that they do not seem to recognize how little of the prairie barley crop actually gets selected.

You can only control so much. In the end, luck with ma nature, and timing, and so on, rule the day.

You can try, but it is not as simple as saying I am growing malting barley.

[Guest]

and if you don't get malt you may get 60 bpa at $2.20 /bu and have $250 /ac invested , like us this year

[SASKFARMER3]

It use to be if you always got malt you always got malt then the game changed and only a few get picked.

Now buy a lotto max you have just as good of odds.

Few years ago had Malt checked buy them three times, it was to go to there USA plant in SD, and two trucks came on a Friday to get. They headed to SD Monday morning and were first in line to unload. We get the call that its rejected but a feedlot will take it locally in SD. Little weekend party at SD bar buy grain buyer and wow local feedlot has cheap barley who would ship it all way back to Canada.

My Barley came home to there surprise.

Another company took it two months later.

Lost money on deal due to shipping buy made a point.

[farmaholic]

There is some good money to be made growing malt at the present prices. If the spread to feed holds... besides the itch and volume it would be a good alternative to wheat but we don't have alot of luck getting it accepted..probably less than a 50/50 chance. Those odds are too poor. Besides, I don't like the games played and possible rejection AFTER delivery without any real recourse.

Somebody please call the whaambulance, I am having another attack!

[farming101]

Made malt so far. More samples to come back yet. And some poor looking stuff is still out in the field.

Just like flax I wouldn't recommend trying to grow malt. Look at flax, last year more tried it and now this year you can hardly find a field of it. Stick with what you know.

Hope you realize I'm joking...

[Guest]

and the really sad thing is it can turn from malt to feed the day before it is ready to combine .

[blackpowder]

Some admissions:
I do not want more people growing malt.
Many people here "dont bother with the bullshit". I agree with them.
I'm not in a vomi area.
I live 11 miles from the co collection point. They pull from hundreds of miles. Every interaction is face to face me and manager.
I would consider it a handicap dealing this crop far away.
Some companys send probing teams around mid winter to try and reduce driveway rejections. Of course they still happen.
Not a traditional malt area. People with no debt prefer wheat. Also an agronomic and logistics learning curve.
But at the end of the day, it's a specialty crop! The seed is a living organism that needs to perform predictably 95% of the time. Many things can go wrong. Especially in a region not conducive for predictable quality.
Malt plants need to buy malt or they close their doors. Yet they only need so much. Its better than in the old days.

[freewheat]

I like the articles in the rag mags that interview the 20 000 acre farmers and they say they grow, canola, peas, HRS, and malt barley.

Everyone grows malt barley. Not everyone SELLS malt barley. SO we should just call it barley.

[farmaholic]

Here in the slum of the Ghetto, our problems can range from droughted out barley... thin with too high protein to rain damaged chitted barley.... probably no different than anywhere else. We haven't grown it since fusarium showed up in the area so that would be another factor. I used to say "way too many flaming hoops to jump through for the price paid" but lately that statement wouldn't be true. There should never be any pit rejections(rejected after delivery), it should be absolutely sure it will make the grade before it falls through the grates! What happens to someone's barley when it is rejected after it is binned with everyone else's? Does it magically separate from everyone else's?

Couldn't agree more Blackpowder.... it IS a specialty crop.

[blackpowder]

Usually rejected on driveway never sees grates at plants.
Freewheat. I insist in calling my crop malt. That way the default is not an ok fallback. I always plant malt. I am now grinding green straw 17M malt thru combine at 2mph. I will then turn and blow malt for 60 days. Garuntee? None. The attitude needs to be that feed is a fail.
The guys that plant barley with an "itll always make" feed attitude, are getting less in number. Risks need to factored into costs.
Mother Nature of course holds trump.

[freewheat]

I have been growing feed varieties for the last many years and loving it. Have averaged 4 bucks at the hog barns, no questions asked, no waiting, no concerns of being rejected. Proud to grow specifically for feed. Never grew any this year, and am dang glad! lol

[blackpowder]

Isnt it great living in a free country. Markets and geography telling us what to grow. You plant feed and do better at it than i can.