2002-2004 Specialty Crops Research Program
University of California

Principal Investigators: C.O. Qualset

Project title: Development and extension of new barley varieties for human consumption in California

The objective is to create, test for grain yield, and put into farmers’ hands new varieties of spring barley for human consumption. Malting and hulless barleys will be bred, evaluated for quality, field tested for regional adaptation, and extended to farmers via the existing network of county Farm Advisors. These food commodities (i.e.: malt, malting barley, and hulless grains and flour) are currently imported into California from Canada and elsewhere.

For malting barley the breeding strategy is to screen two-rowed barleys from barley breeding programs at ICARDA/CIMMYT in Mexico and at Oregon St. U. for quality to identify parents. The best lines with near malting quality, multiple disease resistance, and agronomic performance will be used as parents to create a malting barley gene pool. To date F4 lines have been selected and are ready for evaluation.- A number of introductions will be available for regional testing in November 2003.

Hulless barley will be bred, evaluated for regional grain yield, and extended to growers. A single gene controls the hulless character but selection is also practiced for threshability, grain size, plant type, disease resistance, and other characters. The ICARDA/CIMMYT hulless barley screening nursery has been evaluated annually at Davis for the last 10 years. In addition segregating populations with the hulless character are already available for selection. Advanced lines are in the pipeline and a number are ready for evaluation in Central Valley grain yield trials. By November 2004 some advanced lines will be ready for outreach (on-farm trials) through the network of Farm Advisors.

All new advanced lines are selected on dryland and fit existing crop rotations, minimum or no tillage operations, and organic production systems. The impact will be assessed by seed sales and acreage produced. Barley is an efficient water using cereal. No pesticides are required.