A New Market for Rye

Nearly 85% of the more than 2 million acres of rye planted in the U.S. today isn’t even harvested. Instead, most farmers grow rye purely as a cover crop to protect the soil. But for Fayette County, Pennsylvania farmer Doug Show, rye is a profitable cash crop. The straw is sold for mulch, and the grain becomes the foundation of local, Pennsylvania-distilled whiskey.

“I started raising rye solely for the straw,” says Show. “A feed mill let me know there was a man interested in buying a lot of local rye, and they convinced me to harvest some for grain. We sold that whole crop to Maximilian Merrill, who built the largest distillery in Pennsylvania, the Ponfeigh Distillery in Somerset County.”

At the time, the distillery, which opened in November 2023, was still under construction.

Making rye whiskey takes patience. It’s aged in oak barrels for at least two years before it’s ready to consume. It’s said to have a spicier taste than whiskey derived from corn or wheat with the maturation time impacting how it will taste.

“Ponfeigh Distillery took the grain out of state and had it distilled at a satellite location so it could mature in the barrels while under construction, so when they opened, they would have a good three years of aging on the whiskey,” Show says. “I’m their main source of rye. All our rye is going to them. They’ve been taking everything I can produce.”

Rebirth of rye whiskey

Rye whiskey has a storied history in western Pennsylvania, dating back to the 1700s. Early settlers in the area found that rye grew well in the rocky soil. While rye was not traditionally used for whiskey, farmers used their excess grain to brew beer and distill whiskey. Soon after the Revolutionary War, whiskey production was taxed, which led farmers to fight back in an uprising known as the Whiskey Rebellion. By the mid-1800s, rye was the predominant spirit in the states. Eighteen states were producing rye whiskey but making commercial whiskey ground to a halt during Prohibition, and rye whiskey largely disappeared.

Today, rye whiskey is making a comeback led by craft distilleries using rye from local farms. Show sells the grain exclusively to Ponfeigh Distillery. The distillery aims to help revitalize the area by becoming a key business, a community gathering place and a tourist destination. Their goal is to retell the story of the region’s role in the history of American whiskey, both through the exhibits and artifacts displayed in the distillery’s in-house museum and craft whiskeys made from old, traditional recipes. Somerset County had 14 distilleries alone and is considered one of the epicenters of American rye.

To help feed this growing demand for rye grain, Show and his family devote 750 of their 2,300 acres to the crop. Monongahela Rye is a winter rye native to the area. Show grows multiple other cultivars, including VNS Rye, which he plants as part of a corn/soybean rotation.

Show plants rye in September at 168 lbs/acre with a grain drill powered by his 315-hp T7.315 tractor. Disease and insects don’t present much of a problem. “We don’t spray much, just for broadleaf weeds in the spring. Other than that, we have not had any disease or insect issues,” Show says.

Straw production

The rye crop produces a considerable amount of straw. “Rye is a very tall crop. It gets to be 6 foot,” Show says. “I initially grew it because it yields such big straw production.”

To handle the massive amount of straw, Show uses a New Holland BigBaler 340 to make 8-ft-long, 3x4 bales. “For speed, I need that BigBaler,” Show says. “750 acres of straw is a lot to bale.”

The straw is sold to local natural gas pipeline companies – one that Show works for as a vice president and others operating in the area. It’s a perfect mulch for pipeline rights of way. “I’m within an hour or two of all their projects, so it’s a real good fit to market the straw to those guys. They can load the big bales easily on the large mulchers they have.”

Grain harvest

Although the size of the rye stalk is an asset when it comes to straw, harvesting the grain can be a bit of a challenge because the crop is vulnerable to lodging.

“The problem with combining rye is the straw loses strength in the stalk,” Show explains. “If you get some strong storms or wind, it lays the stalks down, and it becomes difficult to pull it up to get it through the combine. Some of it will be so tight to the ground that you can’t even pick it up.”

The Shows operate a CR9070 Twin Rotor® combine with a 350-bushel grain tank to harvest rye, as well as their corn and soybeans. The rotors generate great centrifugal force, resulting in fast, gentle, clean separation.

“The other challenge is getting the crop into the machine, separating the rye and not damaging the straw,” Show says. “We try to thresh it just hard enough to pull that grain out. Sometimes, sieve openings and fan speeds constantly change depending on whether the crop is down or if there are any foreign weeds. We try to keep the trash out of it.”

After harvest, the rye grain is stored and cleaned at the Show farm before being hauled to the distillery. Last year, his rye averaged 48 bu/acre.

What’s next?

Over the past four years, Show has built a solid relationship with the distillery owner, Maximilian Merrill. According to Merrill, it takes 13-15 bushels of rye to produce a barrel of rye whiskey. Their flagship Monongahela Rye whiskey contains 95% rye and 5% malted barley. It’s made the same way the first settlers of Somerset County made it centuries ago. They will also make Maryland Rye, which has 60% rye, 30% corn and 10% malted barley.

“Moving forward, I will be the main supplier of rye to Ponfeigh,” Show says. “But if I can’t produce enough, we are going to try to get more local farmers to produce rye as well so we can fill the orders.”

With Ponfeigh Distillery’s capacity for producing 3,500 barrels of rye whiskey a year, there’s a massive appetite for rye, one that Doug Show and his neighboring farmers aim to fill.

See what Ponfeigh Distillery has to offer at ponfeighdistillery.com.