Mygrain Organic Malt Barley Project

This is an update on our organic malt barley growing project this summer in Eastern canada. The project is designed to prove our ability to grow barley for a local micro brewer. we hope to prove our ability to produce a crop that is:
1) Organic
2) Grown on half an acre
3) Managed with basic or readily available small farm tools and knowhow
4) Is of quality suitable for malting
5) Possible for other small farmers /growers/ brewers.

There are a lot of challenges to come including how we will harvest, thresh, dry down and store the grain and then the testing which will tell us if the grain is disease free and of suitable protein content for malting. But we'll cross those bridges as they come.

The field was planted June 2 using an older John Deer seeder borrowed from a neighbor. I've grown grain without one broadcasting seed by hand but wanted to try for a specific planting rate over seeded with double cut red clover.

Pictures show the field at plowing on May 10 and this morning (July 11). Season was late, ground was cold and crop is behind but still growing. The picture from this morning shows barley and a row of clover where the seeder skipped barley. The clover helps to feed nitrogen to the crop and suppress weeds.

If you're interesed in learning more about small plot grain growing I recommend the book that inspired me: Gene Logsdon "Small-Scale Grain Raising"

How will it turn out? I have no idea.

Love the dedication (was just reading through your other thread on previous efforts). Best of luck

Thanks Ol-hazza. It's a labor of love.

Time for another update on this project. I'm seeing good growth now thanks to some timely rain and heat. We were almost a month behind ideal planting time due to the long winter and cold ground. Things started pretty slow and I used every trick I knew in the organic book to get this far. Molasses and compost tea to break down sods for planting. Crab Meal and Sul Po Mag for minerals and last summers' sea weed from the shore to feed micro nutrients. My last play was to hit the field with a liquid boron spray the third week in June. A Tbsp of boron per gallon of water foliar fed. Sort of a longshot when the lab says I need 10 pounds to the acre...but availability and efficiency is worth something. Clover overseed is established and that's another plus for fertility. I'm trying not to get my hopes up. We had an inch of rain on Sunday. About half an inch forecast tomorrow. After that a warm dry stretch. That should help. My neighbor came to see me about combining. I'll let you know when we get that far. Good luck will come in handy.

looking good!