USA: North Dakota barley crop a challenge for maltsters this year

The crop in North Dakota is in one word a mess, especially in the southeast corner, CMBTC reported on September 5.

All the barley in this region is chitted/sprouted and has DON levels of 0.5-2 parts per million (PPM), industry sources report.

Maltsters have been adept at malting chitted barley and barley with vomitoxin, however to malt barley that is both chitted and has vomitoxin is another issue and can only result in extremely variable malt barley. Malting this year’s barley crop from North Dakota will be a very challenging endeavour, the CMBTC experts said.

06 September, 2019