Source:  NCDA&CS, 6/18/19

If NCDA&CS Agronomist Kristin Hicks has her way, in a couple of years North Carolina beer brewers and malting houses will have access to more locally grown malting barley rather than having to source that ingredient from farmers in the Northern United States, Canada or Europe.

Hicks, in collaboration with scientists at N.C. State University, is conducting an agronomic study to determine the best nitrogen application rates to produce the higher quality barley needed for malting. Currently, most North Carolina barley is produced for animal feed, which does not demand the high quality that malting barley requires.

If the study helps provide guidance on the optimal nitrogen rates, it could pay off big for farmers who could see a four to five times larger paycheck for malting barley compared to animal feed. Barley costs are around $2 a bushel for animal feed compared to $8 to $12 a bushel for malting barley, Hicks said. 

“We are working to find the optimal nitrogen recommendations, because nitrogen impacts the plumpness of the grain and the protein content, both important measures of quality” Hicks said. “We are looking at eight different nitrogen level treatments and want to develop tissue testing as a predictive test.”

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