ALBANY port zone growers are worried a stark reduction in the amount of hectares planted to Malt barley this season, could have a serious impact on WA's Malt barley exports in the future.
The change in planting habits was bought about by a perceived idea CBH had changed its Malt delivery standards to reduce the number of screenings allowed in a single sample - and a lack of new varieties available to replace the powdery mildew-prone Malt variety Baudin.
Broomehill grower Jerome Hardie, his cropping manager Justin Urquart and 20-year farm employee Murray Hales, recently joined a long line of southern growers who decided the so-called Malt barley profit margin wasn't worth the agronomic risk of growing a Malt variety.
And as such, the trio will consider discarding some Malt varieties from their cropping program next year.
This season Mr Hardie planted a 1200 hectare program of canola (500ha), Malt barley (300ha), wheat (300ha) and oats (100ha) off the back of 60 millimetres of rain in March, 5mm in April and 55mm in May.
Seeding into ideal conditions, Mr Hardie planted Vlamingh barley this season because 100 per cent of his harvested tonnes made the Malt grade last year.
"It's more profitable for us than other Malt varieties even though we get paid a little bit less for it, because it yields well," he said.
"In the past we've grown Baudin but our farm's agronomic history shows about 50pc of it is delivered as Malt and 50pc is Feed grade.
"I'm going to throw Vlamingh out next year because market signals suggest customers don't want it and marketers will probably pay less and less for it."
But he was really disappointed because he thought it was a great variety.
"I will probably replace it with Bass but the jury is still out on its overall agronomic performance," he said.
"The standards of CBH are changing, allowing for less and less screenings in samples, which is pretty poor on CBH's behalf.
"With a lack of good Malt varieties available and the silly changes CBH is making for screenings, there's going to be less Malt grown and a lack of Malt tonnes to sell out of WA."
Mr Hardie said the changes had encouraged many growers in his region to replace their Malt barley varieties with wheat or Feed and Food barley varieties like Hindmarsh.
"The WA Malt industry will only shoot itself in the foot by changing the standards," he said.
But CBH barley trading manager Trevor Lucas said barley receival standards for Malt 1 screenings would revert to the same level CBH had previously set a 20pc maximum for Malt 1.
He also said screenings standards for Malt 2 wouldn't change from 35pc maximum and subsequently, CBH didn't expect too much barley being lost to Feed, limiting cliff-face pricing.
"WA Malt barley has at times been difficult to market in the last five years with many growers actively arbitrating or blending their grain before delivery, damaging downstream value and the reputation of WA barley," Mr Lucas said.
"Receival standards are the only tool available to the industry to protect value and maintain or rebuild our reputation as a producer of quality Malt barley.
"Improved quality will ultimately result in improved premiums paid to growers."
But Grain Industry Association of WA (GIWA) barley council chairman and Mt Madden grower Steve Tilbrook also saw a worrying trend, whereby growers had moved away from Malt barley hectares in favour of Feed and Food varieties like Hindmarsh.
He said the large majority of Hindmarsh growers had switched from Malt varieties in recent years because it was easy to grow, especially in lighter rainfall areas.
"Any barley crop that produces a two tonne a hectare average, Hindmarsh seems to outyield by 10-15pc," Mr Tillbrook said.
"It's getting harder to grow Malt barley due to the changing seasons as much as anything.
"In the Esperance area at least 50pc of the barley planted is Hindmarsh and a lot of growers are hoping there will be a segregation to provide a price premium.
"It'll only be a matter of time before the Albany zone is in the same boat.
"There's a need to protect WA's Malt barley reputation because we absolutely want customers to keep coming back to WA."