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Spring
2017
Grains
West
12
THE
FARMGATE
Photo:SabrinaMcAllister
CDC Copeland now reigns supreme inWestern Canada, according to the CanadianMalting Barley Technical
Centre’s 2017/18 recommended varieties list.
BY SARAH HOFFMANN
ANEWKINGOFBARLEYS
THEMALT LANDSCAPE ISCHANGING—ALBEIT SLOWLY
THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO
the top of the malting barley heap. More
than 15 years after becoming a registered
variety, CDC Copeland has become the
most widely grown malting barley variety
in Western Canada, pushing stalwart AC
Metcalfe into second place.
“Copeland is turning into the king,”
said Kevin Sich, grain department manag-
er at Rahr Malting in Alix, AB. He noted
that the variety is well suited for both the
North American craft brewing industry
and o shore beer makers.
CDC Copeland represented 44.7 per
cent of the acres seeded to malt barley
in Western Canada and AC Metcalfe
totalled 34.2 per cent. Both of these two-
row varieties remain firmly planted at
the top of the Canadian Malting Barley
Technical Centre’s (CMBTC) recom-
mended malt varieties list for the 2017/18
crop year.
Although the new list looks similar
to last year’s, growers will note that the
CMBTC removed CDC Meredith and
Merit 57 this year. “We didn’t feel there
was a strong enough marketplace for CDC
Meredith and Merit 57 to merit being
on the recommended list this year,” said
Peter Watts, the CMBTC’s managing
director.
AAC Synergy switched categories from
“under commercial market development”
to “growing demand,” signifying great-
er uptake by the malting and brewing
industry. Sich called AAC Synergy the
“rookie of the year.” North American craft
brewers like its malting profile, which re-
sembles CDC Copeland, and farmers like
the variety’s improved standability.
“The last big frontier for Synergy is an
o -shore market,” said Sich. “If it could
become an o shore variety, then it could
become really big.” AAC Synergy was the
third most widely grown variety on the
Prairies, increasing from less than one per
cent of seeded acres in 2015 to just over
five per cent in 2016.
Wade McAllister of Antler Valley Farm
grew 200 acres of AAC Synergy barley
last year—about 15 per cent of the total
malting barley acres on his Innisfail-
area farm. He said AAC Synergy showed
improved yield and standability over CDC
Copeland, the main malt variety he grows.
“We love Copeland because it’s a
high-producing variety that everyone
wants,” said McAllister, adding that “it
would be nice to have [another variety]
that you could put into the rotation that
has similar characteristics.”
McAllister called malt the “No. 1
priority” on his farm. “We put everything
we have into our malt. It can outperform
our canola on dollars per acre,” he said.
The e ort paid o for Antler Valley Farm
this year, as 100 per cent of its barley was
accepted for malt.
The relatively high level of malting
barley quality across the Prairies sug-
gests that many farmers had the same
philosophy as the McAllisters this year.
According to the annual
Quality of Western
Canadian Malting Barley
report produced
by the CMBTC and the Canadian Grain
Commission, the average protein content
of barley selected for malting in 2016 was
lower than in 2015 and lower than the
10-year average, while the average
thousand-kernel weight and plumpness
was higher than the 10-year average.
These specifications—low protein and
high kernel weight and plumpness—are
exactly what maltsters are looking for
when sourcing barley.
Despite challenging harvest weather
across parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan,
Sich said farmers were fortunate that
there was no hard frost before the middle
of September. He believes farmers focused
on timely harvesting of malting barley
because of the large spread between feed
and malt prices.
“This was the first year that guys chased
malt over wheat,” said Sich. “We got o
a lot of good-quality barley because guys
were motivated by price.”