GrainsWest Fall 2019

Fall 2019 grainswest.com 41 s the first-ever Made in Canada Crop Tour journeyed north of Calgary on the QE2, Peter Watts welcomed the busload of participants primarily representing the malting, brewing and marketing sectors of the barley industry. Watts, who is managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC) in Winnipeg, said barley is truly at a crossroads. Production stats bring to mind missed opportunity, he said. Just two varieties, ACMetcalfe, registered in 1997, and CDC Copeland, registered in 1999, accounted for 75 to 80 per cent of seeded acreage in Western Canada over the past decade and a half. “Clearly, we’re struggling as an industry to adopt and transition to new varieties and to new genetics,” said Watts. New varieties really must make their way into the system, but this is no easy feat. Bringing new malting barley varieties into production is a lengthy and complex process that usually takes a dozen years. Once they’re available, generating acceptance requires buy-in all along the value chain. Held in late July of 2019, the Made in Canada Crop Tour was conducted with the co-operation of four industry groups to help create just such barley buy-in. These organizations included Alberta Barley, SaskBarley, CMBTC and the Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute (BMBRI). Focused on North American domestic markets, the event brought a wide variety of industry representatives together to discuss promising varieties and envision how these can be marketed. Year to year, the tour will alternate its focus on North American and international market representatives. Inspecting several on-farm barley fields at Antler Valley Farm, Lenz Farms and Hamill Farms, participants also toured the Hamill family’s Red Shed Malting facility. As well, they visited plots at Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC) near Lacombe. At each stop, participants weighed the agronomic and malting characteristics of tried-and-true varieties against the potential of new ones to reinvigorate the system. New barley varieties being grown on these stops included AAC Synergy, CDC Bow, CDC Fraser, Lowe and CDC Churchill. “Maltsters and brewers get an opportunity to understand about the benefits to farmers from purchasing varieties with greater disease resistance, greater sprout tolerance and improved resistance to lodging,” said Geoff Backman, Alberta Wheat and Barley Commission business development and markets manager. He emphasized that in purchasing these better-performing, higher-yielding varieties, maltsters and brewers will increase available supply and strengthen the financial bottom line for barley farmers. “This tour facilitated detailed conversations between variety breeders, farmers, maltsters and brewers on how everyone can benefit from these opportunities,” said Backman. He also noted the tour was very well attended and organizers received positive feedback from participants who suggested A