BARLEY growers are entering a golden age, according to Coopers quality manager Doug Stewart, with varieties boasting great yields and high quality.
Dr Stewart was a guest speaker at a recent Rural Media SA lunch, where he spoke about the importance of barley and malt grades to brewers, alongside Coopers Brewery managing director and chief brewer Tim Cooper, who gave a colourful history of the 153-year-old family business.
Coopers is the largest remaining Australian-owned brewery and last financial year produced a record 75.3 million litres of beer.
Dr Stewart has been with the company for six months, previously working for the Adelaide Malting Company, Joe White Maltings and then Cargill.
He said there was no magic answer on what barley variety growers should seed, but there was more opportunity now in the industry than ever before.
"Today's malting barley varieties are yielding better than some feed barley varieties," he said.
"That's an enormous upside for Australian barley growers, in that there is no longer that risk associated with growing a malting variety.
"Commander from the University of Adelaide is the highest-yielding malting barley at the moment and is very robust agronomically, while Latrobe from Intergrain is accredited and has a similar yield to Commander.
"Compass, also from the University of Adelaide, has amazing potential - it exceeds current feed barley yields and is on track to make malting grade."
Dr Stewart said the battle between yield versus malt quality needed to be monitored, but was not of major concern - yet.
"Breeders want their varieties to yield well and it's possible malt quality could fall to the wayside because of that - it's not happening yet, but it could go that way," he said.
"It is something growers should keep an eye on because if our competitors in Europe and North America keep their focus on quality, we may find we start to lag behind in that sector."
There were about 20 malting barley varieties grown in Australia, which was becoming an issue.
"That's the challenge when it comes to malting barley - farmers are keen to grow them because they are agronomically sound, but are there enough end-users in the supply chain?" he said.
"That's why it is really important for the end-user to work down the supply chain and send a clear message to growers so that they're growing something that there is a market for.
"Otherwise they may have a great malting barley that ends up in the feed bin."
It was "great" that Viterra set clearer guidelines on segregations at the silos this year - something that was needed in the industry.
"It was good that Viterra came out saying they would segregate Commander and Scope in SA, as well as feed barley Hindmarsh," he said.
"It gives growers some clarity and an understanding of what they can grow and what will be segregated, according to the market."
The industry was "getting there" in communicating better throughout the supply chain, particularly through the biannual SA Barley Advisory Committee meetings.
"During the last meeting in March, the issues surrounding the accreditation of Compass were explained," he said.
"During the pilot brewing process, Compass barley recorded 6 per cent to 7pc dead grains, which has been attributed to the barley being stored in sausage bags on-farm.
"Sausage bags are okay for storing barley short-term, like during harvest, but extended periods of time leaves the grain susceptible to heat damage.
"It means Compass will remain in the accreditation phase for another year, which means it will probably be two more years before it becomes a major grain for us.
"But despite it being held over, it is still a high-yielding feed variety."
