Certified seed is the product of a production process designed to deliver specific plant breeding achievements to farmers and the food industry. In other words, it is true-to-type. True-to type means all the benefits developed by the plant breeder are retained as the seed is multiplied over a number of specific number of generations (to the Certified seed stage) from the small amount of seed developed by the plant breeder.

The 2020 Central Alberta growing season could be summarised as “ideal timing” from planting right through to harvest! Spurred on by a relatively dry and warm spring, barley planting got off to a promising start. The second half of May brought the first major rainfall event of 2020, kickstarting excellent germination and plant establishment. From May to August, 337mm of rain was recorded, +15% above the long-term average. The weather turned dry from the second half of August, which meant a disease free and high-quality crop that was quickly harvested in September without any major delays.

Across Canada 2020 was the biggest harvested barley area in over a decade at 2.8 million hectares. Average yield was 3.8 tonnes/ha (just above the five-year average) which produced a bumper crop of 10.7 million tonnes (+23% above five-year average). Of this volume, just over 3 million tonnes was classified as “malt” for the brewery industry, with Copeland and Synergy representing 70% of all malting barley varieties.