Canada: Barley malt buyers count on reliable supply

Farmers and maltsters are not anticipating a dearth of malt barley this year despite sky-high feed barley prices. “I always find that guys who grow malt barley tend to stick to it,” said Leroy Newman, an Alberta Barley board member. He will not be switching to growing feed barley on his farm near Blackie, Alta., just because the prices are far better. “You don’t want to be mixing feed barley and malt barley on your farm very often because you can get cross contamination,” said Newman. It is a pain to have to clean equipment thoroughly when moving back and forth between feed and malt barley fields, he said. Kevin Sich, supply chain director with Rahr Malting, said it would be short-sighted for a malt barley grower to abandon the crop after an unusual year like 2020-21 when feed barley prices eclipsed malt barley prices. There are also crop insurance considerations because farmers can’t get insurance on malt barley if they are growing feed barley on the same farm. Sich expects there ...