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By JEFF DAVIS • PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL INTERISANO
Goodto the
last drop
Inside the life of amalting barley elevator boss
You’d think being the Canadian elevator operations manager for
the Canada Malting Company—with responsibilities stretching from Alberta to Manito-
ba—would be enough to keep a man busy. But not for Ryan Dodd.
When he’s not meeting brewers or overseeing operations at one of 10 grain elevators,
Dodd can usually be found on his family farm, tending to 300 acres of grain and raising
around 130 head of cattle.
Dodd, 37, has spent his career in the elevator industry, working for Louis Dreyfus
Commodities and Viterra before joining Canada Malting 12 years ago. He got his start in
the grain business with the Alberta Wheat Pool, which recruited him just a week after
he graduated from high school.
“They phoned me and asked me one day if I’d have any interest to come over and help
them load rail cars, and I never ever looked back,” he said.
GrainsWest
: What has changed in malt
agronomy since you began your career?
Dodd:
Varieties have really changed. You
went from Harrington to Metcalfe, then
Copeland. Now you’re seeing Newdale,
Bentley, Synergy—all these newer varie-
ties that are higher yielding. They’re built
for a lower protein, and people are able to
put more nitrogen into the field. You see
guys putting more money into herbicides
and some of the top fungicides in the
business, trying to get the best quality out
of the barley.
Nowadays, we’re seeing so much more
wet weather and people really have to
fight against disease. Manitoba has been
hit badly because of fusarium. It has to do
with their climate and soil conditions.
GW
: What are some of the big changes
you’re seeing when it comes to malt
barley marketing?
Dodd:
The loss of the Canadian Wheat
Board was huge—not only for farmers, but
for the industry. It has been a challenge
for some that aren’t quite up to the market
speed, say, with cellphones or the Internet
or anything like that. But then, other guys
have been very successful with produc-
tion contracts and private contracts with
domestic maltsters.
For us maltsters, having to manage all
our own contracts and purchases has been
a really big change. There’s a lot more
paperwork, and you’ve got guys [who]—
instead of coming in and selling big lots
of barley—are selling one B-train load
here, one B-train load there. It’s been a big
change for us.
GW
: You manage 10 elevator opera-
tions—what does that entail?
Dodd:
We have grain elevators across
the Prairies, and what I do is help each
Fall
2014
grainswest.com
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