GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Here at the annual Prairie Grains Conference in Grand Forks, N.D., where, among other things, I'm talking with smart, knowledgable people about barley.
It's fair to say barley, once a staple of Upper Midwest ag, has been losing ground, literally, to crops such as soybeans and corn. But there's reason to think barley may rally somewhat in 2019. I've written many times in the past about the crop; look for two more stories about barley in the Dec. 24 print issue of Agweek, Agweek.com and Agweek social media.
In the meantime, two personal anecdotes:
A few years ago, in August, an Agweek photographer and I were a little south of Grand Forks when he said he'd like to get some shots of nearly ready-to-harvest wheat. I said sure. He was driving the car, and I was concentrating on emails on my iPad. He pulled off the road a few minutes later on an approach into a field, then got out of the car with his camera. A little later, finished with the emails, I looked up to see how he was doing -- and did a double-take. I got out of the car and told him, "Take more photos if you want. But please realize this is barley, not wheat." Not that I blame the photog: Barley had become so rare that he just assumed the field was wheat.
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The other anecdote: Decades ago, when I was in high school, we were combining barley on an August day on my North Dakota family farm, This was back in prehistoric days, when combines didn't have cabs and grain bins weren't automated. The next morning, my alarm rang at 5 a.m. to get me up for 5:45 a.m football practice. But exposure to the barley had caused my eyes to tear through the night; they were crusted over so badly that I literally could not open them. So I felt my way to the bathroom, where I repeatedly rinsed my eyes with warm water until I could open them.
Well, combining and working in bins with barley were less than enjoyable. But I surely do enjoy writing about the crop.
