Barley remains well positioned to continue its long reign as the king feedgrain for cattle in the Canadian feedlot, says a ruminant nutritionist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Barley's status has been threatened in recent years, as drought-fuelled low production and higher barley prices have elevated Canadian interest in subsidized U.S. corn. But while corn is commonly perceived as a superior feedgrain to barley, closer inspection reveals this is not the case, says Dr. Darryl Gibb.

"Although there is more energy in corn than barley, it needs to be steam flaked or fermented to capitalize on this higher energy level," says Gibb, a ruminant nutritionist who along with colleague Dr. Tim McAllister has examined the question closely. "Until our feedlots are willing to do this, we would be a little skeptical of anyone who tries to convince us that corn is a superior feedgrain to barley."

To understand barley's potential, it's essential to separate the perception from the facts, says Gibb. The common feeling that corn is a superior feedgrain to barley is largely based on book values for net energy that were summarized by the U.S.-based National Research Council (NRC). When used to predict performance, these values indicate cattle fed corn should gain 0.25 lb. more each day and require approximately 0.5 lb. less feed to get one pound of gain. However, this theoretical advantage often doesn't show up in feeding trials.

"Based on performance results, researchers have suggested the NRC considerably underestimates the energy value of barley and may overestimate the energy value of dry-rolled corn," says Gibb. "Generally, cattle fed dry-rolled corn may have higher intakes and slightly higher gains, but likely no advantage in feed efficiency compared to cattle fed barley."

Most trials comparing the grains show inconsistent results, which complicates the issue, he says. The inconsistencies are likely due to differences in the specific barley and corn varieties used in the trials as well as how they are processed before they are fed to cattle.

In the final analysis, when starch digestibility and protein differences are considered, barley compares very well with corn as a feedgrain for Western Canada's cattle industry, says Gibb.

"If the energy values for dry-rolled corn were as high as NRC indicates, Canadian cattle feeders could afford to pay for corn and the extra protein it requires at a small premium above the price of barley," he says. "More realistically, if the difference between dry-rolled barley and corn were only half as much as NRC indicates, by the time the extra protein cost is factored in, we estimate it only makes sense for our producers to pay for corn if its price level is about 98 percent the price of barley. For me, this makes barley the obvious choice over the long term for our industry."