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elevator—whether it’s with marketing,
pricing, contracting, farmer visits, as well
as everything down to maintenance and
capital investment into our facilities—
making sure they’re all working top-notch.
then there’s personnel management as
well. We’ve got 29 employees across the
prairies, so there is always something
going on with staff.
i travel around to all the elevators, and
i try to get to the eastern guys quarterly,
so it’s a lot of travel out to mariapolis, mb,
and norman, mb. usually, i drive around
in a truck and stop at a local coffee shop,
and have a chat with the farmer there.
i’m always carrying tools, a new motor
or whatever. last year i put about 75,000
kilometres on the truck.
GW
: Who are the big buyers of malt
and what can canadian farmers do to
satisfy this demand?
Dodd:
for the Canadian operations,
Canada malting, rahr malting, Cargill
and richardson are some of the largest
players. one of the things i’d tell guys
is to know your quality specs, take very
good samples, and retain those samples
for future re-checks and stuff like that.
too many guys just put it in the bin,
grab a scoopful, and think that’s going to
be their sample. and that’s not it—you
have to have a continuous good sample.
that way you’re protected if they come
back and ask you later why your barley
is something different than when you
delivered your sample.
GW
: a lot of barley goes into brewing
beer. how particular are brewers about
the barley they get? What effect can the
barley have on the final beer?
Dodd:
quality is the no. 1 concern for the
brewing industry. it’s the taste, the speed
of the process, the colour of the beer, the
clarity of the beer—it can all be affected,
one variety to the other. brewers have a
really good eye and they run a lot of tests,
so they pay well for the product, but they
want good product in return.
GW
: are the smaller craft brewers more
demanding?
Dodd:
i don’t deal a whole lot with the guys
in the craft brewing industry, but i would
say they are not quite as demanding on the
quality as an anheuser-busch. those guys
are very, very top-notch when it comes to
quality. but if a microbrewery doesn’t get a
product they like, they’re probably not go-
ing to come back and deal with you again.
GW
: What are the best and worst parts
about your job?
Dodd:
i would say probably the worst
part is the declining barley acres and
watching the industry go down. it’s
making our jobs a little more difficult.
We have to go out and show farmers good
returns in the barley market in order to
get them to grow barley.
probably the best thing is the excite-
ment in the craft brewing industry and
the demand in barley from them. it’s real-
ly picked up and helped out a lot in terms
of getting more demand for malt.
GW
: how can farmers get into the
barley game?
Dodd:
the best thing is to call one of our
grain elevators, which are located across
the prairies, and ask them about varieties
that are in demand. You need to grow
something that has a demand in the malt-
ing market. We know what varieties work
better in certain areas, as well as what
kind producers need, so you can grow that
instead of a niche variety.
We also attend trade shows. guys
come around and look at our production
contracts, which give us first right of
refusal on the barley. they’re growing
for us, but there is also a competitive
clause in the contract that says if we’re
not competitive, then we have to either
match or let the guy out of the contract.
so it’s sort of a no-risk situation for the
producer, and they have a home for
their barley if it turns out to be a huge
crop.
Fall
2014
Grains
West
20
CROP SCOUT:
Ryan Dodd has been a mainstay at Canada Malt for more than
a decade and now runs more than 10 elevators, as well as his own mixed farm
in central Alberta.