Nobody grows malting barley better than Lisa and Darcey Gallelli.
But the Crossfield, Alta., farmers are willing to share at least some
of the credit for winning the Barley Development Council’s 2001 malting
barley quality competition.
“The final clincher on why we won is Mother Nature decided not to rain
or snow on our crop last fall,” Leisa Gallelli said with a laugh during
an interview.
The Gallellis have been growing malting barley for 22 years and she
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estimates that 90 to 95 percent of their barley is selected each year.
That would seem to indicate it can’t all be due to luck or Mother
Nature.
In fact, Gallelli has advice for other farmers hoping to produce
malting barley, starting with how the seed goes into the ground.
“It needs to go into a good seed bed,” she said. “It needs to come up
as evenly as possible and mature all at the same rate so that it ripens
at the same time.”
Using certified seed recommended for malt barley is crucial, as is good
weed control during the growing season. For example, wild oat seeds in
a sample can produce a high protein reading, which could prevent it
from being selected.
In their winning 2001 crop, the Gallellis had success with Frontline, a
selective post-emergent broadleaf herbicide applied at the four-leaf
stage.
When it came time to harvest, they straight cut their AC Metcalfe at
the hard dough stage with a carefully adjusted rotary combine.
“That allows it to dry out in the field rather than in the swath so
there’s no worry about sprouting and staining,” Gallelli said.
“It works well for us.”
Mike Grenier, an agronomist with the Canadian Wheat Board, said the
malting barley competition is intended to increase the amount of
malting barley produced each year by highlighting the production
practices of top growers.
Export markets for malting barley are expanding and prairie farmers
will have to increase production if Canada wants to keep or increase
its market share.
“We don’t necessarily need to increase the acreage, but if we can
improve the production practices we can increase the amount that is
selected,” Grenier said.
A survey of producers who participated in the 2001 competition pointed
to a number of key factors in producing malting barley.
Crop rotation was important in providing clean fields to meet variety
purity standards. The preferred choices were to plant malt barley on
canola stubble (42 percent of the fields in the competition) and
summerfallow (26 percent).
Variety selection was another crucial factor. It’s important to choose
an adaptable variety that is well-suited to the particular geographic
region and favoured by malt selectors.
Proper fertilization was mentioned by a number of growers, who said
they paid close attention to ensure soil nitrogen levels didn’t get too
high. Many recommended soil testing.
Harvest management is also a key issue. Growers emphasized the
importance of patience, taking extra time to cut out green patches and
continually adjusting combine settings to avoid peeling or broken
kernels.
“You can wreck the whole year if you’re not paying attention at
harvest,” Grenier said.
Allan MacDougall of Francis, Sask., who won the six-row competition for
Saskatchewan, said he pays special attention during harvest.
He fine-tunes settings during the day as conditions change, opening the
concave and the sieve as much as possible so that as much awn is left
on the kernel as possible. He also tries to swath when no green is left
to get as many ripe kernels as possible.
“If necessary, I’ll swath around the green patches and come back
later,” he said.
Some of the information gleaned from the 21 entrants in the competition
included:
- Seventy-five percent used certified seed. Those who didn’t indicated
they replenished seed stock with certified seed approximately every
three years.
- Seeding ranged from April 25 to June 5, with most taking place
between May 6 and May 19.
- Nitrogen was applied to 90 percent of the fields, with an average
application rate of 56 pounds an acre.
- Twenty-six percent used seed treatment for disease control. More
than 80 percent used a post-emergent herbicide, with one-third spraying
only for broadleaf weeds and two-thirds using pre-packaged combinations
or tank mixes for both grassy and broadleaf weeds.
- Harvest dates ranged from Aug. 10 to Oct. 6, with the majority
occurring in the last two weeks of August.
- The average yield was 62 bushels per acre, although drought
conditions resulted in great variability.
