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Barley/Hops Study Is A Waste Of Your Money

On Thursday, March 28, The Post-Journal featured a story covering the previous evening’s meeting of the Chautauqua County Legislature where a proposal to fund a study of the feasibility of growing cereal barley and hops in Chautauqua County as an aid the area’s growing craft brew and distilling industries, as well as the “healthy foods industry” (whatever that is). It was approved to the tune of $20,000 of county taxpayer cash. As one experienced in the first half of the subject of this proposed question, I had to wonder why no one involved in this decision never thought to simply ask a local farmer or two what their thoughts were on the subject.

As a retired dairy farmer of 40 years experience on my farm overlooking the Cassadaga Valley High School, I would have told them that, yes, barley can be very successfully grown here. I used barley for many years as an easily established rapidly growing nurse crop to protect my newly established hay seedings from ruinous soil erosion possible in the risky period before the hay seedings root systems could hold the precious topsoil in place. However, what I never did was to attempt to grow barley to its cereal, or grain stage. Once the hay seedlings had established themselves sufficiently I mowed the barley in its green, immature stage, chopped it and stored as haylage for my dairy herd.

Throughout the majority of my farming career I purchased my livestock feed and other farm supplies from the Harry Austin Milling Co. of South Dayton. In charge there was the late Kenny Mosher. Ken made his living in the buying and selling of grain and grain products. To survive in that arena he had to have exceptional ability to find and procure quality grain at the lowest possible prices to maintain the competitive edge his business survived on. It made him blunt and to the point — he did not suffer fools lightly. Therefore, when I, as a young and naive farmer, presented him with a truckload of cereal oats I had grown, Ken was dismissive of my accomplishment. He bluntly asked why I was foolish enough to go to all the risk and effort to grow substandard oats when I could buy far better quality oats, (or any other grain) off the the Northern Plains for less cost? He went on to note that at the time of the American Civil War and a couple of decades beyond, Western New York produced a significant portion of the nation’s wheat needs. He also said while that wheat was the best available at the time it was of dubious quality. That all changed with the opening and settlement of the Great Plains. Wheat and other cereal production moved there and Western New York went into the dairy business: Western New York in general and Southwestern New York in particular is too humid for efficient and dependable production of quality cereal grains.

Anyone driving through rural Chautauqua County last fall and winter had to do was look out their car window to notice large acreages of unharvested soybeans. They went unharvested because they never reached maturity and a proper moisture content that would have allowed them to be harvested and stored. This reflected a wet, cold, too humid growing season. Such a season would have likely produced a substandard crop of cereal barley also.

Since I have no experience with the production of hops, I will not offer an opinion other than to note that hop production, once a staple in the farm economy of east central New York departed for the Pacific Northwest many decades ago, likely for similar sound economic reasons.

I find it hard to believe that any Chautauqua County brewer or distiller would opt for substandard ingredients for their products merely because they were locally sourced, given the skill, marketing difficulty and competitiveness of their industries. They are going to opt for top quality, low cost ingredients, therefore in all likelihood their barley will continue to originate on the Northern Plains.

I question why anyone with a shred of common sense would think it a good idea to waste $20,000 of local taxpayer money to enter into a “study” to prove what any local farmer would have told them in five minutes for free: Chautauqua County is the finest grassland on the planet – it is not the semi-arid Northern Plains and will never match them for low humidity and the production of least cost, high quality cereal grain, barley included. Somebody in the Chautauqua County Legislature should have known better!

Nate Wilson is a Sinclairville resident and longtime dairy farmer.

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