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Processing Barley

Barley grows from a seed to a ripe plant almost a metre tall. Products can be made from different parts of the barley plant:

     from the kernel or grain - flour, flakes, bran, pot and pearl barley, livestock feed
     from the stem or straw - bedding for livestock, building materials, paper
     from the whole plant - silage used as cattle feed

Barley grain may be milled to produce barley flour, flakes, and bran.  Milling involves crushing the seed kernel and separating the outside (bran) from the endosperm, which is the inside part of the kernel where food is stored to nourish a new plant.  The endosperm is then ground to make flour. 

To improve its digestibility, barley grain is cracked or rolled for cattle feed and ground to make feed for hogs and chickens.

Barley grain can be polished, or pearled, to create pot and pearl barley.  The polishing removes the inedible hull from the kernel.  Pearl barley is a bit smaller than pot barley because it is polished more.

Barley straw is the dried stems of the barley plant after the head that holds the grain kernels has been removed.  Straw is often used as a soft, dry bed for livestock.  It can also be made into building materials, paper, newsprint and fibreboard.

To make silage, the entire plant is cut down, piled, compacted, and then allowed to ferment.  Fermentation preserves this highly nutritious feed for beef and dairy cattle.

Malting barley is a particular type of barley used in making beer, flavourings, and extracts.  Only a portion of the malting barley planted each year has the specific qualities needed to be selected for malt.  To produce malt, barley kernels are soaked, germinated, and dried.  Although the kernels look the same on the outside, this process causes chemical changes inside.  The malted barley can now be used to make malt extract, beer and flour.

Like regular barley, hulless barley does have a hull, but it is only weakly attached to the kernel and therefore easily removed during harvesting.  The hull is the inedible outer coating of the kernel that protects the seed like a jacket.  Hulless barley is convenient and is becoming increasingly popular both for human nutrition and as feed for livestock.