Everyone should be growing barley.
That isn’t just us looking to have more sourcing for our customers or cheaper prices due to commodity scale, this is a matter of doing what’s best for the soil.
We’re about to embark on a deep deep conversation about Regenerative Agriculture with our growers and customers. Our conversation will be deep because of the things we’re putting in the soil, but also the need for connecting a lot of dots together.
Regenerative Agriculture is the process of building healthy soil as opposed to conventional farming methods that often deplete the soil and create unbalanced ecosystems. Once an ecosystem becomes unbalanced, the amount of inputs required to balance it increases and the health of the soil often decreases. Soil health degradation can cause all sorts of other issues for growers, animals, nutrition, flavor, and the environment as a whole.
Where does barley fit in?
When growing barley fewer inputs are required - chemicals and fertilizers, specifically nitrogen. When nitrogen is applied to crops normally, half of it ends up in the crop while the other half goes out into the air as greenhouse gases or into the water, neither of which is a good thing. Any reduction in these inputs is a big deal for the environment AND our farmers' bottom line, as nitrogen and fertilizer are rather expensive.
Barley requires less of these inputs (compared to other crops) and when the end goal is malting barley it needs even less. Fertilizer is one of the ways to build up the protein level in grains like wheat, but malting barley requires a lower level of nitrogen when compared to wheat. Less inputs, less nitrogen in the environment.
Barley is also great at smothering weeds, which results in fewer herbicides being applied and less competition for the primary crop, which results in higher yields and healthier crops.
One more thing about barley - it breaks down quicker after harvest compared to other crops. This adds organic material back into the soil and captures carbon very efficiently. Because it breaks down quickly, fields where barley was planted require less tillage. This reduces disturbance of the soil structure, which is also good for soil health.
Barley is one of our best crops to grow if your goal is to regenerate the soil and create healthier ecosystems for other plants to flourish in. Plus it makes great beer.