Barley Production

Barley Production
Like wheat, barley was already an established food crop when our earliest historical records originated, and it may have been cultivated as long as 15,000 B.C. It grows over a broader environmental range than any other cereal grain. In addition to this broad ecological adaptation, other distinctive characteristics include almost equal utility as food and feed and superior adaptability to malting for brewing purposes.

As a world crop, its production is somewhat less than half that of the other principal cereal grains (42% of corn, 38% of wheat, 43% of rice). This consists primarily of subspecies of Hordeum vulgare L; these may be two rowed of six rowed types according to the seed distribution on the plant spikelets.

Over 12.1% of the world crop is grown in the USS, followed by France (7.6%), Canada (8.8%), the United Kingdom (4.0%), the United States, and Germany. Within the United States, five states (North Dakota, Idaho, Montana, California, and Minnesota) produce over two thirds of crop; all of these use spring plantation. The grain is split about equally between animal feed and malting, with only about 2% for other food uses and up to 5% for seed. As with oats, much of the feed use is on the farm where grown; thus most of the barley sold commercially is for malting. This has significance for breakfast cereals because of the use of malt flours and extracts as flavoring materials.
Barley Production