Barley Classification, Cultivation, and Global Production Trends

The barley can be classified on different basis like no. of rows of grains or seeds, based on the type of hull the grains have, appearance, color, grain size etc. Some commonly talked of types are listed below. Feed and malt types: This classification is based on end use of the barley. The feed barley is consumed by beef cattle, poultry and swine. This has less plump content than the malt barley, which is used for malt production. Malt is a value added product from barley and used mainly for beer production and other food products for human consumption.

Among the growers there is tendency to produce more of malt barley as it fetches more than 65% price over the feed barley. Hulled and hulless varieties Hulled types – In hulled barley the lemma and palea remain attached to the seed at maturity Hulled barley is the predominant type in the US and many other parts of the world. Hulless types - the seed threshes free of the lemma and palea (hull).

Get quality help now

Sweet V

Verified writer

Proficient in: Agriculture

4.9 (984)

“ Ok, let me say I’m extremely satisfy with the result while it was a last minute thing. I really enjoy the effort put in. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Hulless barley is produced for various food and beverage uses in East Asia mainly in China, Japan, and Korea.

This barley is an important subsistence crop in the Andes and Himalayan regions and in Ethiopia. In Canada, hulless varieties are commonly grown as feed for swine. Awned types predominate Rough and smooth awn types Hooded (modified awns) are used for silage and green chop Awnless types exist Aluerone color variations Colorless, white, yellow, blue Waxy starch type (100% amylopectin) used for specialty food and feed Dwarf types are common; Taller types are used in rain-fed production regions 3.

Cultivation and Production Statistics.

Barley ranks fourth among the cereals in terms of total world production. The cereals leading the pack are corn, wheat and rice. The average production from 2000-2002 was about 136 million metric tons. The table below shows the distribution of production by country over the same time period. Countries that Produced the Most Barley (3-year averages, 2000-2002) Country Area (ha x 1,000) Yield (kg/ha) Production (Mt x 1,000) Russian Federation 8061 2134 17200 Germany 2052 5940 12192 Canada 4050 2609 10565 France 1627 6240 10154 Ukraine 3974 2253 8953 Spain 3138 2757 8652 Turkey 3606 2117 7633 United Kingdom 1159 5510 6388 Australia 3420 1719 5879 United States 1840 3136 5770 Denmark 774 5244 4061 Table 2: Barley production (three year average 2000-2002) (faostat) It can be clearly seen that while as a country Russia leads the pack followed by Germany, Canada and France; as a geographic or commercial block European Union is the undisputed leader. From productivity considerations as well there is no match for EU where yield of this crop is more than twice than in any other barley growers.

Not only the productivity, when it comes to quality of the barley, there is no match for EU malt barley which has about 20% pricing premium over the US or Canadian malt barleys and as much as 50% pricing premium over the Chinese malt barley.

Now let us look at the barley production in 2005. The top barley producing countries in 2005 are presented in following table: Top Ten Barley Producers - 2005 (million metric ton) Russia 16. 7 France 10. 4 Canada 12. 1 Ukraine 9. 3 Germany 11. 7 Turkey 9. 0 France 10. 4 Australia 6. 6 Ukraine 9. 3 United Kingdom 5. 5 Russia 16. 7 United States 4. 6 Canada 12. 1 Spain 4. 4 Germany 11. 7 World Total 138 Table 3: Barley production in 2005 (faostat)

Comparing the barley production statatistics of 1998-2000 and 2005, it is very obvious that global barley production is more or less stable in this period at around 137 million metric ton. While production of Canada has increased from 10. 5 million metric ton to 12. 6 million metric ton in 1998-2000 period to 2005 that of US has dropped from 5. 8 million metric ton to 4. 6 million metric ton during same period. In fact production of barley in US is continuously dropping; this aspect will be explored in the next section.