With a goal of cutting water used in making beer an additional 9% — on top of the 38% reduction achieved in the past decade – Anheuser-Busch gathered the farmers who grow the barley used to make its beers for a briefing on how they can contribute to the company meeting that goal. Among the Smart Agriculture programs discussed:
- SmartBarley, which helps growers produce the most “crop per drop” of water through benchmarking.
- LESA, a pivot irrigation technology that waters closer to the ground to save up to 20 percent of the water and energy required to irrigate.
- AgriMet, an irrigation scheduler that gives growers real-time access to weather and water data.
- New Barley Varieties, see the latest improved varieties from Anheuser-Busch’s barley breeding team.
- Crop Management Trials, which provide key management information about proprietary barley varieties, including seeding rate, fertilizer rate, growth regulators, and more.
The growers, their families and others also went behind the scenes of the A-B Idaho Falls Malt Plant where they saw the state-of-the-art technology used to process the Idaho barley used to make Budweiser.
After that, the growers and members of the community attended a celebration that included the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales, food and drinks, and live musical performances by Jack Ingram, Clare Dunn and Matt Stillwell.