Wheat Farming News – Info on Wheat Futures, Grain Commodities, Wheat Harvesting

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

AG CONNECT EXPO

AGWEB PREMIUM
CONTENT LIBRARY

PLANT HEALTH

Wheat

AgWeb Home > Articles

Agriculture Markets

Enter Zip Code below for LIVE local results.
Cash Bids	LDP Quotes

Barely in Barley

1/12/2007
Wayne Wenzel
In 1985, farmers in the U.S. grew nearly 12 million acres of barley. That number has steadily declined to 3.3 million acres today.

The decrease in production is not a result of a significant decline in world demand for barley. Steady profits for brewers, such as Anheuser-Busch and Coors, and the increasing popularity of foreign brews, indicate that people still drink plenty of beer. And, barley-based feed demand for livestock continues to increase as the world’s growing middle-class demands more meat.

Nevertheless, barley production has dramatically shifted out of the U.S. Canada now grows three times more barley than the U.S. And, while U.S. barley acres declined during the past 20 years, Europe increased its barley production by 10 million metric tons. That increase alone represents more than today’s entire U.S. barley crop.

The decline in production is a concern for farmers in one of barley’s last U.S. strongholds, north–central Montana. Here, the growing season is too short for corn (sometimes fewer than 92 frost-free days).

Herb Karst, a farmer near Sunburst, Mont., and past president of the National Barley Growers Association, says increasing farmer risk without increasing rewards has contributed to a steady decline in U.S. barley acres.

“Malting barley commands a significant premium over feed barley,” Karst says. “But, if you have any fungal disease, premature sprouting or too high of a protein content, malters will reject the grain, leaving you to sell it as lower-priced feed barley. While you can make a profit selling malting barley, it’s tough for U.S. farmers to break even on every acre that goes to feed barley.”

Karst is one of many Montana growers who have testified before the U.S. Senate on behalf of the Barley Risk Management Task Force. The group is proposing an enhanced price protection policy for U.S. barely growers. While the proposals have received some attention, there has been little action from the increasingly corn-focused USDA.

As the government wheels grind along, producers like Dave Broberg, near Cut Bank, Mont., must deal with barley’s current market reality. “Anheuser-Busch gives us a good price on malt barley, making it a desirable crop to grow,” Broberg says. “But, that one company uses 50% of the barley and produces 50% of the beer. It can afford to make more demands on its growers. That transfers risk and expense to the grower.”

Broberg lives in an area that produces malt-quality barley only about 60% of the time because of variable weather. Last year, feed barley prices fell to $1.50 per bushel, he says.

“With wheat priced at $4.25 per bushel going into planting, there was a lot less incentive to plant barley,” Broberg says. “I’m growing 25% of the barley I grew five years ago.”

Alternative crops have Broberg’s serious consideration. “Canola has been a good alternative crop for me,” he says. “It’s a rotation crop for controlling weeds, but it comes with more frost risk. I also tried a few acres of a new European oilseed crop called camelina. The university was promoting it as a low-input option to supply oil for biodiesel. It didn’t quite work out that way. But, I did discover that areas compacted by my wheel tracks tended to grow better. Maybe we’ll get it figured out yet.”

Disease Deals a Blow

Barley’s popularity in the U.S. shrunk when head scab hit the Red River Valley in Minnesota and North Dakota in the early 1990s. The fungal disease produces vomitoxin, making infected grain unusable for malting and questionable for feed. Brewers that buy malting barley typically have a 0% tolerance for scab.

The wide-open, windy country of Montana, Idaho and parts of northern North Dakota provides the cool, dry climate and long summer days that make for high barley yields and low fungal disease contamination.

A step behind. Broberg laments that barley has fallen behind in technology. “As there are fewer barley acres grown in the U.S., there’s less incentive for seed companies to come out with better-yielding varieties. Average dryland barley yields have increased from 40 bu. per acre to just 50 bu. per acre.”

He says varieties are geared toward easy sprouting—good for the malter and the brewer, but it increases risk for the farmer that the grain might sprout or head in the bin. And, chemical companies often can’t justify the expense of registering new herbicides to control weeds on a low-acreage crop.

Another Cut Bank-area farmer, Keven Bradley, is also having second thoughts about aggressive barley production. “I planted 100% of my acres to malt barley last year, and this year I was at just 15%,” Bradley says.

“I switched a lot into wheat acres and some into alternative crops like flax and canola. For me, one of the key elements of going away from malt barley is risk,” he continues. “A little bit of sprout damage in the field—just one rain at harvest—and the barley can be unusable for malt production. I think it takes at least $2.30 to $3 a bushel feed barley price to encourage barley production.”

Sixty miles south of Cut Bank, Marty and Marcia Klinker still raise malt barley near Fairfield, Mont. But, lessons learned the hard way prompted them to diversify.
In 1989, 10 days of rain at harvest sprouted their entire barley crop in the head, making it almost worthless for malting. “That year we really relied on the income from Marcia’s job as a registered nurse and an off-farm business we were developing. It was probably my biggest motivator to change,” Klinker says. “To recover from that total loss year, we decided to get more use out of our existing resources.”

Klinker’s gravity-fed pivot irrigation system made his farm appealing as a contract grower not only for malt barley but also contract seed canola and seed wheat. The growing conditions for canola and other small grain specialty crops are excellent in his part of Montana. Canola, in high demand because of the oilseed’s low trans-fatty acid content, not only diversified Klinker’s income base but also provided a good rotation crop that allowed for transition into other specialty crops. Changing herbicide modes of action from year to year also helps control difficult weeds like wild oats. “With double spraying, it was costing me $20 to $35 an acre just to control wild oats in barley,” Klinker says. “Clearfield canola gives 100% kill with two sprays and helps lower my weed control costs. I can follow canola with winter or spring wheat, followed by barley. I also grow a mix of alfalfa and orchardgrass hay to serve the area’s beef cow and dairy industry.”

On his irrigated acres, Klinker can grow 120 bu. to 140 bu. per acre malt barley. He relies on technology to attain those yields, including a computer-controlled Telemetry irrigation system; a GPS-guided sprayer and seeder for efficient use of herbicides, fungicides and seed inputs; combine GPS yield mapping; and growth regulators to produce more tillers and limit the barley plant’s height. “We also learned to harvest earlier and spend a bit more on drying the grain,” Klinker says.

Crop diversity is a good management tool because it improves weed control, crop harvest pressure and crop storage issues; diversifies marketing and contract networking; and increases yield potential, Klinker explains. “I am no longer captive to one market for all of my farm acres.”

Around the World

Barley is the world’s fourth-most important cereal crop, after wheat, rice and corn. Total annual world production in the mid-1980s was 185 million metric tons (204 million U.S. tons) with the former Soviet Union producing the largest crop—almost four times as much as Canada and the U.S. North Dakota, Montana and Idaho are the main barley-growing areas in the U.S. European Union countries’ farm programs are more favorable to farmers who grow the grain for feed since corn is not well-adapted to Europe. Hence, Europe has shown the greatest increases in barley production in recent years, exporting most of the grain as animal feed. Worldwide, about 60% of all barley is ground or rolled and mixed with other ingredients to produce formulated animal feeds.

Printer-friendly version

Email Article to a Friend

Your Email:
Your Friend's Email:
Message to add to the body:

© 2010 AgWeb.com - The Homepage of Agriculture
AgWeb.com is a Division of Farm Journal Media, Inc.
Quotes by Barchart.com, Inc. Delayed 10 Minutes