Barley

A 25-page criminal complaint alleges the researcher and her boyfriend were attempting to bring Fusarium graminearum into the country. The fungus causes significant diseases in a number of food crops, including corn, wheat, barley, soybeans and rice. Toxins from the fungus are harmful to humans and livestock.

Whether it’s loaded and driven, or rolls out by rail, U.S. grains are pouring out of our country and heading for end users in Mexico. “We use raw material [such as] corn, sorghum, wheat and fiber-like cotton seed hulls to make feed for livestock,” said Ricardo Elizondo, owner of Forrajera Elizondo, a family-run feed mill in Monterrey, Mexico. This family-run feed mill said the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) helped make that grain, and in turn their feed competitive. Today, they’re bagging or selling roughly 50 million metric tons of corn and sorghum every year. They’d like to buy more.

Using small grains as a dependable forage source will depend on several factors, including production potential, season of production, and winterhardiness.