MONTE VISTA, Colorado – Proximity Malt hosted its 2022 Field Forward Day in Monte Vista, Colorado on Thursday, July 28th. Led by Zach Gaines, Director of Procurement at Proximity Malt, dozens of growers, brewers and distillers from Colorado, Arizona, Kansas, Texas and Kentucky joined barley breeders in the all-day event. Craig Stuart, Raw Materials Purchasing Manager at New Belgium Brewing, and Scott Dorsch, the agronomist from Odell Brewing were in attendance and agreed – a day in the barley fields was well worth the long drive from Fort Collins.
This year’s Field Forward Day was an opportunity to meet colleagues from the beginning of the beer & spirits supply chain, to the end. Participants gathered for the day to see the latest in barley breeding efforts in the Valley, to tour Proximity’s state-of-the-art malthouse and roaster facility, and to learn about the important environmental sustainability potential of barley grown in the Valley. Not least in importance, we took time to break bread and share a beer with colleagues both at Proximity Malt’s facility, and at Derek Heersink’s Square Peg Brew Pub in Alamosa.
Proximity Malt Field Forward attendees first visited the CSU San Luis Valley Research Center for an overview of Proximity’s barley variety evaluation program. The advanced experimental strip trial included 14 new US, European and Canadian two row malting barley varieties. 2022 is the first season that eight of these varieties have been planted on US soil. Barley breeders Dr. Jamie Sherman from Montana State University, Dr. Blake Cooper from Limagrain and Commercial Manager Wayne Tallman from the KWS Group (Germany) were on hand to introduce their new varieties, and to answer questions about their breeding programs and the future of barley breeding in the San Luis Valley and North America.
Participants gathered at Heersink’s farm where Gaines spoke about Proximity’s Climate Smart Regenerative Agriculture Program. The program, currently in its first year of data collection, provides resources and incentives for growers in both of Proximity’s locations – Colorado and Delaware – to embrace regenerative agriculture methods such as low or no-till farming, cover cropping and irrigation management to positively impact carbon emissions, soil health and water utilization.
The group visited two of Heersink’s 60-acre plant scale evaluations, both new elite German 2Row varieties with the potential to be on hundreds of San Luis Valley acres next spring. Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC-Des Moines, IA) representatives, Anne Dinges and Emily Hutto were on hand to explain the program, its timeline, and methodologies to quantify the impact of regenerative farming practices.
Chuck Skypeck, Brewer’s Association’s Technical Brewing Projects Director summed up the importance of the day, saying, “A hands-on-approach to linking growers to brewers and distillers goes beyond introducing new barley varieties, as important as that is. It is important to talk about the value malting barley can bring to reducing carbon output and water utilization, and improving soil. I think consumers will care about that, too.”
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