A crop tour is an event at which experts and interested parties visit the areas where malting barley is grown in order to assess its development and condition.
These tours offer an insight into malting barley production and enable an exchange between farmers, traders, brewery representatives and plant breeding companies. Federal agricultural offices or research institutes are often also represented and provide an insight into the current range of varieties and breeding progress or acreage development.
Such events take place regularly before the harvest in various regions, such as Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria and Thuringia, and are used to assess the condition of the plants and discuss the expected malting barley harvest.
The trips are organized by the malting barley associations in the respective federal states. Buses are usually used for the tours. This not only offers the advantage of networking during the trip – but also learning something about the region at the same time: the tour guide usually takes the bus microphone and simply starts talking about the country and its people.
The technical part of a crop tour ends with an open discussion. Here representatives of the value chain speak one after the other and assess the market and its situation from their respective perspectives.
Press representatives like to use the debate to write specialist articles based on the information, which they publish in the agricultural weekly newspaper, for example. In this way, the news about malting barley also reaches an audience outside the circle of participants. Last but not least, the debate is also accompanied by food and drink, with local cuisine and beverages, including a selection of (free) beer.
What do I need to know to take part in a crop tour?
- In principle, anyone interested can take part in a crop tour. Apart from a reasonable participation fee of 20 – 30 euros including the bus trip, there are no other costs. Quite the opposite, there is often free lunch and free drinks, paid for by friendly sponsors.
- Check the weather forecast: Because either the sun is blazing down from the firmament or you need wellies and an umbrella.
- Allow at least one day for arrival and departure.
- German tour dates are always published in good time on www.braugerstengemeinschaft.de
Well, who would like to take part in a crop tour?
