Malt barley has traditionally not accounted for many acres in Ontario, but with the growing popularity of craft and local beer, would there be demand for more malt production?
That’s one of the issues Grain Farmers of Ontario plans to explore as it welcomes barley and oat growers into its fold, joining corn, soybeans and wheat under the GFO banner as of July 1, 2015.
Related: Barley and Oats Officially Move Under the Grain Farmers of Ontario Banner
“Especially with craft breweries, we want to see if there are varieties more suited for Ontario production,” explains CEO Barry Senft in the video below. “There’s a lot of research that goes into malt barley nationally, but we’ve been missing out on that because we haven’t had a formal organization to plug into the Barley Council, for example.”
GFO hosted a welcome reception for barley and oats at the Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock, where Senft joined RealAg’s Shaun Haney to discuss why GFO welcomed barley and oats to the organization and opportunities he sees for both crops:
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