As with most every year, I am making the decision as to what type of barley to plant. I can go with the malt varieties with low yield and currently selling for $12.50-$13.00 CWT. The feed varieties yield a 30-50 percent more and are 2 weeks earlier maturing. Trouble is they sell for $5.00 CWT right now. There is currently a stockpile of malt that had sprout and or too high of protein to make the grade stashed in farm bins in the area.

Last year the spread was such that feed was the better option. We planted feed had a great crop and were late enough that we had no sprout. Most the malt planted didn't make and had sprout therefor it was sold as feed. Net result is my feed went to $4.00. We sat on it and are still sitting on 8k bu of good high protein feed. Had we planted malt it would have been $14-$15 CTW.

Who needs a trip to Vegas just try farming.

raise some pigs and sell the meat. that is the best thing to do with barley. You will control what you get paid for this way. Once i got off the merry go round of farming for commodity prices and began to market my grain thru cattle, lamb and pork by selling cuts of meat i was able to control what my profit is. Now when someone asks me what grain prices are i really dont know, dont care either. And, get this, my bacon sells for $7 a lb.

Do you have 2 fields? Then you can hedge your bet and lose on both of them.
If I still had cows, the market would crash - did every time.

Have you considered another crop like Oats? You could cut some for hay and harvest the rest.

The local feed mill wants $37/cwt for rolled barley. It isn't a staple here, so they would have to order it in in bags. A local had never seen barley before.

Bad malt makes good feed. With the number of microbreweries springing up everywhere, its too bad you can't connect with a local malter and brewer for capitalizing on the local craze.

What are your discounts? They love to check for Vom, protein and test weight around here. Some places are easier than other buyers. Remember all the crooks are in the barley market. Vomitoxin is the worst. We have had a bin go from 2 ppm to 15pmm in 1 load; left it sit on the semi over night back at home and it was back to 2ppm. Using the 65bpa and 100 for feed it would be 157 per acre in favour of malting here.

Most of the time barley here has enough lysine for hogs also.

Told the county agent when we were looking at the 3 choices for FSA programs that we should just go buy lottery tickets. We would know whether we were right in 3 days instead of 5 years!

Based on the dry conditions here, I'd bet anything grown near us will be down significantly in yield this year. That would be wheat, barley, peas, garbanzos, canola ....... and hay. As big as those commodities are in this region, the outlook rarely seems to have any effect on price. That moves with corn.

How much ground are you talking about, Kari?

Probably too late to get some forage barley seed (Haybet)but that could be a better money maker than grain this yr.

We do feed a good portion of the barley we raise. But can't utilize it all. It is dry farm hills where raising oats for hay is not an option. We had hay there one time as a kid and it is a nightmare to deal with. Have to have a hillside combine to cut the grain. Barley or wheat are the best options. It just seem like what ever I plant the market will fight back.

A couple years ago we planted a malt barley that only yielded 35 bu/ac. The good thing is it was heavy and went 52 lbs. Sold it to the neighbor who blended it with his lesser quality. Both of us made money that year. Blending bumped his price $4 CWT and he gave us 2 of that. Worked well.