SOUTH Coast barley growers are calling for a review of barley standard guidelines saying the current system discriminates against them.
South Stirlings grower Derek Curwen said he has argued for a long time that the measurement of barley colour wasn't a true reflection or measurement of quality and that the Grain Industry Association of WA (GIWA) needed to reconsider its standard guidelines.
Mr Curwen said there were a number of problems with the classification of WA barley.
"Every third year or so, when the northern Wheatbelt experienced a poor spring, industry was prepared to drop its colour standard in the southern end of the State due to low production numbers of Malt quality barley grown in the northern Wheatbelt," Mr Curwen said.
But he argued this was a prejudicial move because there was nothing wrong with the raw quality of southern barley crops.
He said industy's ability to cherry pick coloured southern barley to make up Malt stack tonnages was a hangover from the regulated days when CBH's Grain Pool (now CBH Grain) used the move as a drafting gate to stop the whole WA barley crop being classified as Malt.
But now that growers were farming in a deregulated system, Mr Curwen said GIWA needed to review the issue.
Mr Curwen cited several examples of how the system had broken down over recent years.
He said in the most recent harvest, the majority of his barley was colour scored at 55, one unit shy of reaching a Malt grade.
"We had to buy grain in to fill our Malt contracts but we then received 50mm of rain and the colour grading went up," Mr Curwen said.
Further to this some on-farm testing found Mr Curwen's barley had falling numbers of 70.
"It was ridiculous," he said.
"We kept delivering barley and it was being classified as Malt even though the grain was stuffed."
Another example Mr Curwen used was during the 2009-2010 harvest.
He said he remedied a quality problem by buying barley seconds from growers throughout the Great Southern.
"Most of it was 90 per cent screenings but had a colour of 60," he said.
"So we blended five tonnes in every road train and our barley made Malt with no trouble at all.
"And in the 2008/09 season we harvested 400 tonnes of barley, with a colour reading of 54.6 and stored it in a shed.
"After leaving it in storage for three weeks the colour lifted to 55."
A CBH staffer suggested at the time that although the barley was still reading dry there were some immature seeds in the sample which still contained chlorophyll and they were being picked up by CBH's infratec.
"So here we were earning an extra $60/t just by leaving it in the shed for three weeks," Mr Curwen said.
"There should be a system that accepts grain colour to 53 for Malt via the infratec.
"Then if the specified area has a major rainfall event a falling numbers test should be introduced."
With 2000 hectares of his 6000ha cropping program made up of barley in the 2011/12 season, the first 1800 tonne of his Baudin barley harvested went in the Feed stack.
Yet later in the season other loads were making Malt with falling numbers of 70.
"A full scale falling numbers test would throw the entire barley industry into absolute furore but why wouldn't industry drop the colour to 53, monitor the season and when there was a major rainfall event, introduce falling numbers," Mr Curwen said.
"That little infratec has cost us an absolute fortune."
Mr Curwen said current standard guidelines did nothing to help consistency of quality.
"The so-called Malt that I've been delivering over the last couple of weeks is bad quality grain," he said.
"Is that good for our barley industry?
"We would rather know where we're placed so the day harvest starts we can start stripping the barley and putting it through the grain dryer because we know we're going to get Malt.
"Rather than the current system where the goal posts move and mid-way through harvest what was feed suddenly becomes classified as Malt."
GIWA chairman and chairman of its standards committee, Jon Slee said GIWA was looking into the situation but suggested there would be no quick fix.
He said in the review of standards it was key criteria that if a standard was changed the move had to add extra dollars back to the WA grains industry.
"Colour is one we've been looking at for a while and we'll be going into more detail over the next couple of months while reviewing the 2011/12 harvest," Mr Slee said.
"CBH Operations has been working with us to collect extra data to help with that review."
Mr Slee said the review would include the falling numbers process and whether or not it correlated well with colour testing and what tools would better be used for judging how well Malt barley would perform through the malting process.
"Another key thing the committee needs to consider is WA does still have some markets, whether it's just a perception or a reality, that see colour as an important attribute," Mr Slee said.
"We just have to be careful we don't change any particular standards and jeopardise some of our important markets.
"That's probably more of an export issue than a domestic one which is made clear on the east coast where colour isn't considered the main factor because the majority of the Malt barley is going to domestic end users who use falling numbers as a quality gauge.
"And that's not even a great gauge of how things will malt, it's more a teller of how the product will store."
CBH's barley marketing manager Rob Dickie said while CBH was concerned by Mr Curwen's claims, other barley growers in the zone should also be concerned because blending grain they know is of poor quality then delivering it to a premium malt stack, undermined the quality of the stack and the zone.
While this provided financial benefit to one individual it also transferred the risk to the remainder of growers delivering into the stack and to the marketer.
"CBH made the decision very early in the 2011/12 season that it would not change colour standards this season and this was communicated (to growers)," Mr Dickie said.
"Despite this, some within the industry made calls to have colour standards lowered to suit their personal situation but this was not in the interest of the total barley industry and was not implemented."
Mr Dickie said a greater than expected percentage of Malting barley was segregated in the CBH system this season which was what contributed to the reduced premium between Malt and Feed grades.
"The answer to the issue is to continue to research alternative measures to colour as a quality measurement while using this tool in the meantime," he said.
"The answer is not to scrap colour without any other tool to replace it.
"Growers need to remember that quality aside, visual characteristics of grain are also important marketing tools and colour assists us in this regard, as well as providing guidance on storability, microbial activity and germination, measured at the point of receival.
"A second and more important factor is that, based on market requirements, both WA and east coast receival standards for Malting barley are too low.
"CBH has been communicating with GIWA to address this issue as a matter of urgency for some time."
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