September 11, 2020
The 2020 growing season in Western Canada saw adequate moisture in many regions of the Prairies. Coupled with cooperative harvest conditions in southern Alberta, as well as much of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, yields and quality results are generally looking above average for western Canadian malting barley this year. However, areas in north and north-central Alberta as well as north-western Saskatchewan experienced a cool growing season and received too much precipitation which is negatively impacting yields, quality and the ability to harvest the crop. Overall, the Prairies are poised to have a large and good quality malting barley crop in 2020 which will mean ample supply for the domestic Canadian malting industry and a strong barley export program.
Quality Highlights
- Early harvested barley is showing very good quality.
- High test weights, generally 65 kg/hl or higher
- Plump kernels on average above 90%
- Very good germination energy, on average 97-100%
- Limited pre-harvest sprouting, although later samples are likely to see some chitting.
- Low incidence of fusarium/DON
- There has been a relatively wide range proteins with the majority of the samples in the 11-13.5% range.
Official harvest progress by province
- As of September 7, Manitoba barley harvest is estimated at 82% complete (source MB Ag).
- As of Sep 7, Saskatchewan barley harvest is estimated at 58% complete (source SK Ag)
- As of Sep 8, Alberta barley harvest is estimated at 31.5% complete (source AB Ag).
