New malting barley varieties seem to be yielding better results, but maltsters and brewers are skeptical of adopting them too quickly and shying away from a system that has proven successful.

CDC Churchill, located in Alberta, is one of the latest malting barley varieties available to growers.

One of the common elements of growing corn, wheat or soybeans anywhere in Canada is the volume-based market for each. Outside of identity-preserved (IP) varieties in soybeans or silage-specific hybrids in corn, there’s little differentiation. Regardless of the care or management a grower may take with commodity crops, their destination is usually the same — the nearest country elevator, where it’s blended with the harvest of other area growers.

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