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The Canadian Malting Barley
Technical Centre (CMBTC) released its
Recommended Malting Barley Varieties
list for 2014/15, a report it has published
for the last 12 years.
The report’s purpose is simple: “[We]
advise farmers on what the industry—in-
cluding both domestic and international
maltsters and brewers—is looking for,”
said Rob McCaig, managing director and
director of brewing for the CMBTC.
Testing has evolved into a more collab-
orative effort since the end of the single
desk, and “all varieties on the list, includ-
ing those still undergoing market develop-
ment, have passed rigorous preregistra-
tion co-operative and collaborative tests,”
explained Michael Brophy, president and
CEO of the Brewing and Malting Bar-
ley Research Institute (BMBRI), which
performs the collaborative tests. “Making
the list confirms that there is commercial
demand for these registered varieties.”
The report covered two-row and six-row
barley, with two-row accounting for 95
per cent of the malting barley sold.
“The two-row section is actually two
lists,” said McCaig. “The first one con-
tains four varieties that represent 80 to
85 per cent of the anticipated selections
for the year.”
Those four are AC Metcalfe, CDC
Copeland, CDC Meredith and CDC
PolarStar.
“AC Metcalfe is still the king,” said
McCaig, “but others are gunning for the
crown. In terms of agronomics, yield, dis-
ease resistance and acceptance by the in-
dustry, CDC Meredith is the one to watch.
While it has yet to be picked up by the
export market, and the domestic market is
just discovering it, it had a yield of 116 per
cent over Metcalfe, which is significant.”
Also in the top four, CDC Copeland is
10 years old and is still widely accepted by
domestic and international markets. Po-
larStar is grown on contract for Sapporo
Breweries.
The second list comprises five variet-
ies accounting for 15 to 20 per cent of the
anticipated selections.
“These would be the ‘kings-in-waiting,’”
said McCaig. “We expect several of them
could become dominant varieties in six or
seven years.”
By Geoff Geddes
grain
science
news
“AC Metcalfe is still the king, but
others are gunning for the crown.”
– Rob McCaig
These five varieties are Newdale, Major,
Bentley (developed at the Lacombe Field
Crop Development Centre), Merit 57 and
CDC Kindersley.
According to McCaig, “Major, Kinders-
ley and Bentley could graduate to the first
list down the road. Newdale can be a high
selection in years with a poor overall bar-
ley crop, but in good crop years like this
one it won’t be chosen as frequently. The
other varieties are preferred over New-
dale, but because of the higher yielding
potential of Newdale, the opportunity to
get selectable barley in poor crop years is
magnified.”
McCaig said that Newdale is “at its
peak now” and won’t move to the top of
the list in the foreseeable future.
As for Major, “it has an excellent com-
bination of agronomic traits and disease
resistance with malting quality similar
to AC Metcalfe,” said Yueshu Li, PhD,
director of marketing technology for the
CMBTC.
Among six-row varieties, Legacy, Tradi-
tion and Celebration were the top three.
By the Numbers
1
– top variety for 2014/15 malt:
ACMetcalfe
4
– varieties on the two-row rec-
ommended list
5
– varieties on the two-row list of
up-and-comers
12
– years that the CMBTC has
been publishing the recommend-
ed varieties list
20
– CMBTCmembers providing
input for the list
85
– percentage of selections for
the year represented by the top
four two-row varieties
95
– percentage of total malting
barley sold that is two-row, as
opposed to six-row
“Six-row continues to be dominated
by those varieties required by Anheuser-
Busch InBev, the leading global brewer,
managing over 200 beer brands,” said
McCaig. “But that demand is steadily
declining.
“They do best in black soil,” added
McCaig. “In Alberta we have prime
conditions for malting variety selection
in the Palliser Triangle, running from
Lethbridge along the eastern edge of the
foothills and extending north to just east
of Edmonton.”
Most years, the industry identifies the
most desirable varieties, and farmers
proceed to grow them.
“Not so this year,” said McCaig. “Inter-
estingly, many farmers put in Meredith
instead of Metcalfe because of yielding
potential. That’s why Meredith is where it
is in the report. There’s a lot of good-quali-
ty Meredith out there and, agronomically,
it’s fantastic for farmers.”
Brewing for aShowdown
HIGH-YIELDINGMEREDITH TAKESONOLD STANDARDMETCALFE
Winter
2014
Grains
West
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