Finding out if barley is right for your needs

Barley is about ready to be harvested and will be coming to town by the truck load near the end of June, headed for storage and later use as livestock feed. This useful grain is an excellent source of energy for cattle, horses and small ruminants (sheep and goats), and it provides 12 percent protein. Feed manufacturers will tell you they really like using barley because it is affordable and it makes an all-purpose livestock feed. 

Livestock producers are now considering their affordable options for delivering nutrition to their animals and barley could be the answer. Since it delivers both energy and protein and is usually sold at a discount to corn, barley has some advantages. The amount of this discount should determine if it is a good buy. Nutritionists figure barley is 80 percent of the feeding value of corn and grain buyers figure they can pay 74 percent of corn. Usually it sells for significantly less than corn. 

To figure if barley is right for you, we need to know how you will be using this feed.

Putting pounds on beef cattle is good example to consider. Heavy feeders will use significant amounts of energy and barley can supply some of this requirement.

Using an online calculator available called FEEDVAL, you can determine the comparative value of barley for gain in beef cattle. They figure that barley is worth $9.70 per hundred pounds of dry matter when corn is $4.56 per bushel and soybean meal is $457.30 per ton.

Adjusted back to a standard bushel this makes barley worth $4 per bushel. Figures used in this FEEDVAL calculator are updated weekly using Missouri prices and we know that Virginia prices will be different. 

Another use for barley will be in dairy rations as these high performance cows can make good use of both the starch and protein available in barley, making it more valuable to them than to beef cattle.

Using FEEDVAL to find a comparative value of net energy for lactation and maintenance, with the same corn and soybean meal prices used in the beef example, we find that barley is worth $12.17 per hundred pounds of dry matter which is equivalent to $5.02 per bushel, for use in dairy rations. 

Processing is another topic important to barley, as whole barley is difficult for most animals to digest except small ruminants. With today’s prices, increasing utilization at an affordable cost is worth considering.

One way to find cost is to check with your local feed mill. They have standard values for processing.

Use their charges as a minimum for your own costs to keep from being too low when estimating your own cost.

Cracked barley is expected by nutritionists to provide excellent performance in either beef or dairy rations. Any further processing can only be justified if small amounts are being fed.