Wheat and Cereal Grain Seed

Malting Barley

Hiser Seeds Malting Barley, Wheat and Cereal Grain Seed

We’ve had several growers comment that their malting barley is looking a little pale now that we’ve had a serious dose of cold weather. While overwintering is always a concern with cereal crops recent history will show that our malting barley varieties, including Puffin, have been well adapted to withstand the winter weather in Ohio. This will be our 3rd year growing Puffin and we have been very happy with the results. In our experience Puffin will look pale in the winter months (especially when planted next to wheat!) through early spring even into April, but will quickly pass other crops once warmer weather arrives. We have harvested our Barley between 3-10 days before our wheat crops have been ready.

We recently attended the Ohio Seed Improvement’s Professional Seed Grower’s School in Wooster and enjoyed talks by Ohio State’s Dr. Eric Stockinger and Dr. Laura Lindsey on the subject of Malting Barley. Dr. Stockinger is Ohio State’s Barley Breeder and has been working on improving the availability of winter hardy lines. During his talk he noted that Puffin was one of a few lines that survived our last “Polar Vortex” in 2013-14. While the challenge of producing a variety that is both winter hardy with good malting characteristics is formidable he’s encouraged that there will be new varieties added to production soon. Dr. Lindsey is currently conducting trials to study seeding rates and Nitrogen application rates. Considering malting barley hasn’t been a staple crop in Ohio since prohibition, there isn’t a lot of relevant information on production methods. While her work is still in the early stages, we have begun using her recommendations on best practices.

If you’re growing malting barley and have questions, or you are interesting in getting started, please give us a call! 740-993-2311

Puffin now a recommended Variety

Hiser Seeds Malting Barley, Wheat and Cereal Grain Seed

The American Malting Barley Association added Puffin Barley to its list of recommended varieties this year. This was a very big step for the progress of our Malting Barley project in the state of Ohio. We are partners with Origin Malts who owns the exclusive rights to Puffin production.  Our combined goal is to bring Barley production back to Ohio farmers, while producing malt for micro-breweries to produce an all-Ohio product.  We are proud to be a partner in this project and look forward to providing many Ohio farmers with high quality Malting Barley seed for years to com.

Click here if you would like to read the press release from AMBA.

For more information on Malting Barley production please give us a call 740-993-2311, or check out the production guide from OSU.

2018 Malting Barley Harvest

Hiser Seeds Malting Barley, Wheat and Cereal Grain Seed

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We harvested our Malting Barley the 15th and 16th of June this year. This was later than previous years due only to the wet conditions. We were pleased with our varieties ability to withstand heavy rains late in the season. We were able to get everything harvested and then planted with soybeans despite continued wet conditions.

This was our third Malting Barley crop and we had another successful but educational season. We thought the 2017 spring was wet, but it does not compare to 2018! This confirmed our thoughts that barley doesn’t like wet conditions! We look forward to getting results on our samples to see how this crop compares to previous years from a malting standpoint.

We continue to work with Origin Malts to set up a supply chain of Ohio grown Malting Barely for their new Malting Facility. Our next step this season is cleaning, treating, and bagging barley seed for delivery to our growers!

Ohio Malting Barley Production Guide

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The Ohio State University’s College of Food Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, along with many other sources around the state of Ohio, has produced a Malting Barley growing guide for Ohio. You can view the guide online by clicking here. You can also view an article from CFAES about the work that’s being done to bring Barley production back to Ohio. While Barley is already being grown in some areas for feed, Barley raised for Malting requires different management practices to ensure the highest quality.

We at Hiser Seeds are proud to be a part of bringing Barley production back to Ohio, and are excited for the potential that this crop has here.

 

 

Thank You!

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We would like to say thank you to our customers for a successful 2017 Wheat season. It’s always great to see a little green in the fields (that aren’t weeds…) this time of year. As always we wouldn’t be in business without your loyalty and support!

As we’re working to wrap up the 2017 harvest we can start to turn our focus to the 2018 Corn and Soybean early order period. We’ll be mailing out information on available varieties and programs shortly.

Field Compaction Tips

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Some tips from the University of Nebraska to consider for the rest of harvest since it looks like we’ll have wet weather. The full article is here and is worth a few minutes of your time.

10 Tips to Avoid Compaction on Wet Soils at Harvest Time

  1. Wait until the soil dries enough to support the combine.
  2. Don’t use grain bin extensions or fill the combine as full.
  3. Use wide tires with lower inflation pressures.
  4. Keep trucks out of the field. Consider unloading at the ends of the field, not on the go.
  5. Grain cart should track the same rows as the combine.
  6. Don’t turn around in the middle of the field.
  7. Don’t fill the grain cart as full, unload more often.
  8. Establish a grain cart path and stay on it.
  9. Don’t till wet soils as they are easily compacted.
  10. Use cover crops to help build soil structure.

2017 Barley Harvest

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We were able to harvest our Malting Barley fields this week. This is our second year growing Malting Barley and we saw quite the improvement from our first year. Some credit can be given to learning from last year’s experience, but the biggest change was the variety selected for production. We grew a two row variety as opposed to a six row last year. This new variety will provide a grain that is more desirable for malting.

Growing conditions were challenging this year with most of the late winter and spring time being damp and cold. Timely applications of nitrogen and fungicide were keys to a high yielding crop. Regardless of what growing conditions we may have each season the overall goal of Malting Barley production is the same as all of our products, Consistent High Quality.

We have been working with Origin Malts to set up a supply chain of Ohio grown Malting Barely for their new Malting Facility. Our production is still in it’s infancy, but we look forward to Malting Barley being a profitable choice for Ohio farmers for the first time in decades.