URBANA, Ill. — When you reach for that ice cold Budweiser it has a lot farm country in it. Anheuser Busch celebrated its relationship with barley growers this month (July 19 & 20, 2017). Todd Gleason has more from a harvest table at Howe Seed Farms about twenty miles due west of Fargo, North Dakota.
The barley malt delivered to Anheuser Busch in St. Louis, Missouri comes from farmers way up north in the United States. It’s processed in Moorhead, Minnesota. Alan Slater is the Director of Midwest Barley Operations and he spent some time earlier this month letting folks know just how important the barley farmers, and it is pretty safe to say he knows a lot of them, are to making beer.
Slater: We get to deliver this barley from this farm, after we make malt out of it, to St. Louis, Missouri. It is our number one customer. We are also shipping to Cartersville, Georgia, Jacksonville, and lately Columbus, Ohio. So, it so cool to think about barley from this farm that is processed in this region adding jobs and helping rural communities and moving on to the end product.
This farm, this machine shed, cleaned up for a beer tasting and food pairing night, belongs to Jim Howe. He grows corn and soybeans, but he also grows barley for the malt plant.
Howe: Barley has become more of a speciality crop. Thanks go to Anheuser Busch InBev who have been very religious in contracting barley every year. There is security in their needs here in the Red River Valley as well as the western part of the state. From an economic point of view, if you have a good crop of barely that is used for malting purposes, it is pretty profitable.
And pretty exclusive, too. Depending upon the year only about 200 to 400 growers contract with the Anheuser Busch malt plant in Moorhead. So, it would be pretty easy to know the farmer that grew the barley, malted in Moorhead, brewed in St. Louis, Cartersville, Jacksonville, or Columbus, and delivered to your local pub.
— Alan Slater, Director Midwest Barley Operations – Anheuser Busch
Jim Howe, Howe Seed Farms – Casselton, North Dakota
Todd Gleason, Farm Broadcaster