New Barley Market Spurs Research Effort
by Roy Roberson (Southeast Farm Press) Research under way at Virginia Tech Universitiy’s Tidewater Research and Extension Center near Suffolk, Va., is geared to giving area growers better information on the benefits of barley/soybean double-crop rotations versus wheat/soybean double-crop, full-season soybeans and corn.
The Osage Bio ethanol from barley plant in Hopewell, Va., has spurred renewed interest in barley production among farmers and is the impetus for a multi-faceted Bio Energy Cropping Systems research project by a diverse team of Virginia Tech researchers.
When in full operation, the Hopewell facility will need to pull barley from the entire mid-Atlantic region to supply an annual demand of 30 million bushels. Perdue AgriBusiness will purchase all barley for the facility using its regional network of elevators.
…Economics is a driving force behind the Bio Energy tests being conducted by Virginia Tech researchers David Holshouser, state soybean specialist; Wade Thomason, Virginia small grains apecialist; Virginia Tech economist Gordon Grover and others.
“The primary reason more Virginia farmers don’t grow barley is a lack of market. Now, Osage Bio is offering a stable market, a fair price for barley (75 percent of corn future prices) and more growers are interested in growing the crop,” Holshouser says.
…In tests at Virginia Tech’s Tidewater Research and Extension Center in Suffolk, Va., Holshouser’s research team will be looking at three or four cropping systems — all geared to maximum biofuel potential and maximum profitability for Virginia farmers.
“The overall objective of the study is to agronomically and economically compare several cropping systems: Full season soybeans, wheat and double-crop soybeans and barley and double-crop soybeans.” Grain sorghum behind barley will be the fourth system we look at,” he adds. READ MORE