from Western Grains Research Magazine
December 2003

How research can help Canada capture more from the grain.
Perspective from Vern Racz, University of Saskatchewan.

If the barley market battle were a football game, Vern Racz would be a leading armchair quarterback. From his perch at the Prairie Feed Resource Centre (PFRC), University of Saskatchewan, a big part of Racz's job as Executive Director is to analyze the industry and look for ways to better capture economic opportunities.

In handicapping the prospects for the success of barley as a feedgrain in Western Canada, Racz sees the glass half full. Feed barley is threatened by corn and CPS wheat on the livestock market front and struggles to provide sustainable returns to growers. But despite these challenges, the grain is well positioned to benefit from new, research-driven strategies that can elevate its status and help the region capture more barley value.

Here's a rundown of Racz' top five strategies for value-added barley, as told to Western Grains Research Magazine.

1. Aim for the best of both worlds

Malting is still what drives barley production. Growers shoot for malt and, if their crop isn't selected, they look at the feed market.

Because in most years there's an excess of barley, the malt market can pick and choose the quality it wants to meet specs. The excess barley then gets turned into the feed trade, and sometimes it sells for less than the cost of production.

For the grower, the question is, if you only reach a malting grade two or three out of 10 years, is that worthwhile? In more and more cases, the answer is 'probably not.' We're getting to that point because of transportation costs and the competitiveness of barley vs. other feedgrains.

How do we improve feed barley's position? At a big picture level, I believe we have to tie malting and feed barley together more tightly in a complementary system. This means continuing to make sure our best malt varieties also have very good quality for feed. So if growers bet on malt and don't get it, their barley is still close to the best feed barley varieties in value for the feed market.

Taking this one step further, we can look to enhance malt barley varieties in ways that provide greater feed benefits. One idea is to breed varieties with a thinner hull. Right now, we have hulless barley varieties that are great for feed, but they're not suitable for malt. Varieties with a thinner hull would still have increased energy content, but could also be tremendous malting barleys. This is the type of thing our breeders are looking at.

The bottom line is as long as malting continues to drive the process, you want to have good malting characteristics in your feed varieties. Of course, there are exceptions to this strategy, but it makes sense for the most part. I think for pigs and chickens, we can develop good dual-purpose varieties very easily. It looks harder for the best cattle feed characteristics to be compatible with the best malting characteristics.

Down the road, what I'd like to see at an industry level are schemes where we combine the feeding of cattle and barley production together more tightly in the marketplace. For example, a scenario where an inland terminal sets up grower contracts to purchase all of the barley in an area, including both malt and feed grades. The barley that doesn't go for malting would be put immediately into the feed trade in the local area. The day this happens is the day that they average the price of malting and feed barley for the producer. I suspect that under these circumstances it would become very advantageous to grow barley.

2. Go for yield

Pushing the yields on malting barley is another way we've come closer to meeting grower needs. If you look at older varieties like Harrington compared to the new ones, you're looking at 20 to 25 percent more yield today. To me that's exciting - it's a major increase and advantage.

But unless the industry can support that jump in supply through feed sales, we're not going to be growing malting barley because producers can't take the risk. This means continuing to make barley attractive as a feedgrain, in comparison to alternatives such as corn and CPS wheat.

Part of this are the feed advantages breeders are building into barley. The other part is getting the livestock industry to recognize the value that research is adding. This second part is easier said than done. But it's the direction things are slowly moving.

3. Boost available energy

In terms of nutrition, there's no sense going after a higher protein barley to produce a better feed - our studies have shown it doesn't pay significantly for the grower or the livestock producer. The good news is this is better for keeping feed characteristics in line with malting quality. Malt varieties are bred to have lower protein contents, because too much protein makes malt bitter. So, if we don't get much bang for our buck from protein why chase it?

What we have to be going after is increasing the energy density. Let's get off the protein kick and let's shoot to try and increase energy.

By shooting for a thinner hull, that's exactly what we're doing. Work on a slow digesting barley for ruminants has been underway and is another exciting avenue. As cattle feeders know, one of the reasons corn is more desirable than barley in feeding ruminants is that it digests at a slower, more efficient rate. Our breeders are now working with a barley trait for slow rate of dry matter disappearance to produce 'slow DMD' varieties that act more like corn. Barley is often called too hot because of its rapid digestion - this trait will slow it down and allow the animal to capture more energy from the grain.

4. Reduce phytate content for hogs

Another way we can add value is to develop low phytate barley. This would reduce pollution and create incentive for higher feed prices. Estimates show that feeders could save in the range of $2 to $3 per tonne of feed in a hog grower diet by reducing the need for additional phosphorous supplementation.

The idea behind this is to produce barley lines that are low in phytic acid, which is a form of phosphorus that is almost indigestible by monogastric livestock and typically ends up in manure. In our conventional barley, around 70 percent of the phosphorus is in the form of phytic acid. Low phytate varieties would contain the same amount of phosphorus, but that phosphorous would be in a form that is easier for pigs and poultry to digest.

The University of Saskatchewan has done a lot of work on this, cooperating with colleagues in the U.S. The line most likely to result in the first commercial variety has 75 percent less phytic acid than conventional barley.

5. Take advantage of unique barley qualities

Looking to further innovations, we should be asking if there are designer products that we can produce that we can market to the rest of the world or that others may want to produce using barley? For example, we know barley produces a nice white, hard fat in pork products and in beef. Can we make designer meat products that can go to Japan with a value added 'barley-fed beef' or 'barley-fed pork' label?

On the human food side, we're seeing greater interest in barley's health value. It contains beta-glucans and other components linked with lower cholesterol and heart health. This may be another marketing opportunity on the feed side, if we can tie those benefits to value in meat produced with barley feed.

Overall, the crime would be to let go of the potential in feed barley. We just need to make it more sustainable. Malting barley is potentially very lucrative and so is livestock production. Barley is a backbone for both. If we can get more value in the feed trade, our situation will look a whole lot better, and that's what we're aiming for through the research, development and marketing chain.