MALTING QUALITY TRAITS - Canadian Malting Barley Technical ...

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Malting Barley
Selection, Handling and
CANADA, BARLEY MUST PASS RIGOROUS TESTING AND EVALUATION BEFORE
it is accepted as suitable for malt production. As discussed in Chapter 1, only about 23%
of the malting barley grown in Canada is selected for export or domestic malt production
annually. In order to meet customers’ quality requirements, malting barley is carefully
produced and handled by producers and grain companies to ensure its quality. This
chapter outlines the Canadian malting barley selection process and the quality criteria
involved, and how to properly handle and store malting barley.
Malting Barley Selection Process
Malting barley selection starts on the farm. Each year, producers carefully choose
malting varieties to be seeded according to anticipated market demand. An annual
Recommended Malting Barley Varieties List from the CMBTC (see Chapter 7) advising of this
potential demand is available to producers.
Growers are encouraged to grow certified barley seed provided by commercial
seed companies. Some growers have malting barley production contracts with grain
companies using certified seed and production advice provided by these companies. Growers pay
special attention to crop rotation, fertilization, pest control, combining and on-farm storage conditions
to increase the potential of their barley to be selected as malting barley in the fall.
The entire commercial selection, from combining the barley crop to unloading onto an export
vessel (or into a receiving pit of a domestic malting company) is outlined below.
1. Representative samples are taken by the farmer while unloading the newly
combined malting barley from a truck into on-farm storage bins. Usually, every truckload is sampled
to ensure a true representation of the barley in storage bins.
2. The collected barley crop samples are submitted to a grain or malting company
for selection evaluation by trained experts, and the producer fills in a CWB Malting Barley
Storage and Delivery Contract.
3. If the barley is selected for malting based on the submitted samples, the signed
storage and delivery contract is forwarded to the CWB. The CWB, in turn, sends a letter to the
farmer confirming selection.
4. Prior to delivering the barley to a grain elevator or a malting company, quality
is confirmed. The barley storage bins are periodically probed and a recheck sample is
submitted for analysis to verify the quality of the stored barley on the farm. The probed samples
must match the quality of the selection samples. If the quality is confirmed, the producer may start
the delivery at a period specified by the grain or malting company that is party to the contract and
the CWB.
5. If delivering to a malting company, the barley is sampled and checked again at the receiving
site prior to unloading the delivered barley into a receiving pit. If the barley is being delivered
directly from a farm, growers are given an official grade that is used for CWB payment purposes.
6. If delivering to a grain elevator, a representative sample is taken from the truck as
the barley is delivered. Based on this sample, growers are given an official grade for CWB
payment purposes. These samples also represent the selected barley in storage at the
elevator and allow the selecting party to verify the quality prior to shipping to customers.
7. If the barley is for export, a full quality check is carried out at the port by the
CGC on behalf of the exporting agency while loading the barley into the vessel.
This final check ensures that the quality of the selected barley meets the customer’s
quality specifications.
Chapter Two
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