United States: A lot of good malting barley varieties but growers should watch the market closely - expert

Malting barley breeding has come a long way in recent years at NDSU, The Prairie Star cited on September, 27 Rich Horsley, NDSU barley breeder and new chairman of the Plant Sciences Department.

For example, the NDSU variety Pinnacle, a two-row barley released in 2008, is one that is working well across North Dakota.

“When I first saw Pinnacle and compared it to Conlon, I thought ‘wow, that’s late (maturing),’” Horsley said. “That’s going to have a tough time in the western part of the state.”

But what NDSU discovered is the variety was really stable under dry conditions, as well as in wetter conditions.

“Its plump kernels haven’t suffered in drier conditions, even with its late maturity, and it has been at the top of the list in yields across the state,” he added.

Horsley said they have found it has yielded better than Conlon, and Pinnacle was as tough as Conlon under less than ideal conditions. In addition, its protein has proven to put a point lower than Conlon.

“So it is a variety that is going to fool you,” he said.

Pinnacle is in its final year of testing for Miller brewery.

“It has behaved better in the malt health and brew health testing than Conlon has,” Horsley said, adding an important characteristic that brewers are looking for is extract, the amount of material that can be taken from the malt to make beer.

“The higher the extract, the more money the brewers make,” he said, adding it was a financial consideration for the brewers. Pinnacle is a half percentage point to a percentage point higher in extract than Conlon.

“That’s money in the brewer’s pocket,” Horsley said.

Pinnacle is also lower in beta-glucans, which slows down the filtration process in the brewery.

“When they are trying to get as much beer produced in the summer, especially a hot summer, time is money,” he said. “If Pinnacle has a good second year, I would guess they (Miller brewing) would quickly replace Conlon.”

Barley growers will know by late fall whether or not it’s a go with Pinnacle.

Horsley said Anheuser-Busch is not testing Pinnacle under the official program, but the company did contract 400,000 bushels of Pinnacle because of the filtration improvement and its higher extract.

“When you’re thinking of what malting barley to grow, talk to your buyer. To go with the open market is always a risk and there’s no guarantee they’ll take it even if they do use it,” he said, adding that it happened in 2009 with a lot of good malting barley. If producers have a contract, there’s a little bit of coverage.

Rawson is strictly a feed barley variety with yield potential similar to Pinnacle, Horsley said.

“As a feed barley, it has nice potential,” he added.

The nice feature about Rawson is its very large kernel which is larger than Conlon or Pinnacle, he said.

With six-row barleys there are a lot of varieties out there, he said.

“Tradition is the most popular across the state,” Horsley said, adding it claimed 46 percent of the barley acres in North Dakota last year.

According to the malt companies he talked to last year, Horsley said that when asked if the market could absorb that much barley, the answer was “no.”

“That’s why I say talk to your buyers,” he said. “Growers have had trouble moving Tradition.”

Tradition’s grain protein is not as low as Pinnacle, but it has high yield potential.

The variety Stellar-ND from NDSU is predominately used by Anheuser-Busch, Horsley said.

“In a year like this where there is some moisture, it can lose yield,” he said, adding the variety is also susceptible to pre-harvest sprouting. However, Anheuser-Busch sees that characteristic as an advantage. In Canada, Stellar was just registered and it might end up being used more up there than here, he said.

Celebration is a variety with yield potential higher than Tradition, but its protein is .3 to .5 percentage points higher than Tradition, he said.

“Anheuser-Busch is going to contract Celebration next year,” Horsely said.

Quest is a new variety from Minnesota and it is the first scab-resistant variety with less vomitoxin than Tradition, but its yield potential is not as good as Tradition, according to Horsley.

“Quest is in its final year of testing, and there could be some contracting of the variety next year,” he said.

Rasmussen was released by Minnesota a couple of years ago, and there has not been enough seed out there for growers, Horsley said. It is on the American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) list.

“We’re not sure where that variety is going to go next year,” he added. “So again, talk to the buyers.”

Innovation is a new variety from Anheuser-Busch. It has a higher yield potential than Tradition and will be entering brewer evaluation this year. Its straw is shorter in strength, but more data needs to be collected on it.

“There’s a lot of good varieties, but we will have to see what the market is going to do,” Horsley said.

29 September, 2010