Colorado farmers flush with barley crop
REBECCA BOYLE Greeley (Colo.) Tribune | Posted: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 12:00 am
BERTHOUD, Colo. - In northern Colorado, a region flush with craft breweries and plenty of discerning beer drinkers, an interesting marriage of agriculture and ale-making takes place.
Heavy farm equipment harvests barley a few miles from popular breweries that need it for malt, so one man's thirst for a cold brew means another man's cash crop.
Northern Colorado's supply of high-quality water and easy access to barley has allowed both farmers and brewers to thrive.
Most Colorado barley growers sell their crop to Molson Coors Brewing Co., which does its own malting. Breweries in northern Colorado buy from malting facilities in the northwestern United States, though they'd like to buy local.
But plenty of Colorado growers are able to take advantage of the big brewery in Golden.
Bill Markham, who grows Coors-bred barley on his family farm near the Weld County line in Berthoud, said the crop looks good this year, and prices are healthy, too.
Markham is growing more corn this year than before, but he hasn't given up on barley.
"We are definitely (raising) more corn this year than we have been in the past. But right now, barley is a good crop and corn is a good crop, so that helps everybody," he said.
Despite the demand from brewers, raising barley can be a gamble - it must meet stringent quality requirements before it can become a key ingredient in your favorite bottle of brew.
Last year, Coors rejected Markham's barley crop because many of the kernels dried up during the drought. When his barley doesn't meet Coors' standards, Markham turns to a cattle feed dealer.
It's much more lucrative for the brewery to buy Markham's barley, he said.
That's especially true considering barley prices have almost doubled in the past year, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
"Coors has very high standards, and if you meet those standards, you get a premium. If not, you don't get a premium," Markham said.
That risk has led some farmers to the safer reward of corn, which is in increasingly high demand as corn-based ethanol gains national support. This is especially true in Weld, where barley production is down and corn is up.
Higher prices might be good news for barley growers, but next year breweries and retailers who sell beer will likely feel the effects.
Malted barley is the backbone of any beer, according to Doug Odell, brewmaster at Fort Collins-based Odell Brewing Co., which uses more malt than bittering hops, the other key ingredient in beer. The malt is what gives a brew its color, taste, texture and sweetness. The more malt, the sweeter the beer.
Since many breweries sign contracts for their barley a year in advance, the barley price increases haven't affected them yet.
"I would not be surprised if it goes up higher next year," Odell said.
Odell buys about 1.5 million pounds of barley a year from a malting facility in Pocatello, Idaho. He believes most Colorado-grown barley goes to Coors, so he estimates most of the barley from the Idaho malting facility comes from Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, the country's third-largest craft brewery, buys all its grains and malted barley from a facility in Wisconsin, said Bryan Simpson, media relations director for the brewery.
"Guys like Coors, they can get the local (farmers) to commit their entire field to Coors. But we're not big enough to do that," he said.
The brewery would like to have its barley malted in Colorado, and New Belgium has even discussed starting an organic hops program at Colorado State University.
"It would certainly be nice to keep all your production localized," Simpson said.
Fred Walker, who grows barley on his farm north of Windsor, said he'd like to work with local breweries. He's been growing Coors barley for 10 years and said he has never been approached by any other brewers.
Walker said barley is important in his crop rotation; he plants barley on fields where he planted sugar beets the year before. It's a good crop for Colorado because it's planted early, in late February or early March, and uses the early spring water flow that can't yet be used on young corn and sugar beets.
"It's an alternate crop that we certainly appreciate having the ability to consider doing," Walker said. "If we were out in the middle of Kansas, we wouldn't have this option."
While higher barley prices may not affect brewers until this year's crop is sold, some beer prices have already jumped - a phenomenon Odell attributes to some farmers switching to more lucrative crops; a bad barley harvest in Europe last year; and rising energy prices that effect everything from drying the malt to shipping it to brewers.
The Labor Department said retail prices for beer at supermarkets and retail stores were up 3 percent in May, the biggest increase in more than two years.
Carol Parish, owner of Westlake Wine & Spirits in Greeley, said beer prices increase every year, but this marked the largest increase she's seen in a decade.
"Especially domestic beers took a pretty significant increase," she said. "But I'm sure some of that is attributable to fuel costs. … some have been saying they have lagged behind in their prices, so they were having to increase at a higher rate."
She believes barley prices have also had some affect.
That is good news for farmers like Markham and Walker, and it helps illustrate the complex relationship between agriculture and beer in northern Colorado.
"Growing barley for Coors or other barley processors is an important piece to the sustainability of agriculture along the Front Range," Walker said.