Spring
2016
grainswest.com
7
BY MELANIE EPP
THE
FARMGATE
THE CANADIAN MALTING BARLEY
Technical Centre (CMBTC) released its
2016-17 recommended varieties list and
it looks eerily similar to last year’s—
Copeland, Metcalfe and then all the rest.
“With this list we provide signals to
growers about which varieties we believe
have the greatest potential to be selected,”
said Peter Watts, managing director of the
CMBTC.
The list not only helps them to choose
easily marketed varieties, but also links
varieties to the maltsters that own their
rights.
According to Watts, Metcalfe and
Copeland accounted for more than 70 per
cent of the two-row varieties seeded in
2015. However, both are older varieties,
which means that they lose out in terms of
yield and agronomic performance to the
new cultivars. However, end users are ac-
customed to the older varieties, Watts said.
This makes it very di cult for growers to
transition to new varieties, even if those
newer varieties have better agronomics.
“It’s complicated,” Watts said. “It’s a
chicken-or-egg scenario where you don’t
have the quantities of new varieties to of-
fer to big buyers, but the producer doesn’t
want to grow large quantities and be at
risk of not being able to sell that barley.
“How do you get large quantities
produced of a new variety so you can in-
troduce it to the end users? Who shoulders
that risk? And that’s the thing that the in-
dustry is grappling with in the post-Wheat
Board era.”
On the whole, demand for malting bar-
ley is increasing. In 2015, there was an 11.5
per cent increase in seeded malting barley
acres over 2014. This trend is expected to
continue in 2016.
One of the reasons demand is on the
rise is the steadily growing craft brewing
industry. Kevin Sich, manager of the grain
department at Rahr Malting Canada Ltd.,
has been watching this growth closely.
About 80 per cent of Rahr’s production
goes to the U.S., home to some 2,600 craft
brewers. Another 2,500 are rumoured to
be in the planning and licensing stages
right now, he said.
“It’s huge, you know. Five thousand
craft brewers in the U.S. in the next two
years,” he said. “I don’t know where it
ends. Five or 10 years ago, there were
maybe 500. It’s gone crazy.”
According to Watts, malting barley
acreage isn’t the only thing that’s increas-
ing. The crop’s value is also on the rise,
and it could be one of the most profitable
crops in 2016.
Growing demand for malting barley has
created shifts in varietal demand. Accord-
ing to Sich, for instance, Copeland has
gained a lot of traction in Western Canada
because of the craft brewing industry. De-
mand for Metcalfe, however, has waned.
Sich attributes the decline to Metcalfe’s
enzyme package and the fact that it has
been around too long. As a result, he said,
it struggles agronomically.
Maltsters and brewers like Sich have
been looking for replacements for Met-
calfe for some time now. “There’s a variety
through SeCan called Kindersley, which
kind of looked like it was going to be a
Metcalfe replacement,” he said. “It has
very similar characteristics in the malting
as Metcalfe, but again there was a little
bit of a protein issue with that variety.
It’s earlier maturing, but I don’t think it’s
going to take o . It’s going to control a few
per cent of the acres, but it’s just not a big
player.”
Another variety of interest is Syngen-
ta’s Synergy. “We look at it as a Metcalfe
replacement,” Sich said. “It has a little
better package, and agronomically, we’re
probably seeing 10 to 12 per cent yield
boosts. Anytime you tell a grower that, it
gets their attention right away.”
To see the entire 2016-17 varieties list, visit
grainswest.com.
FAMILIARFACES
METCALFEANDCOPELANDREMAINONTOP,WHILE
NEWCOMERS SEEMODESTDEMAND INCREASES
