Annual Progress Report on Malting Barley Research March, 2002

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BARLEY IMPROVEMENT IN WASHINGTON
S.E. ULLRICH, V.A. JITKOV, J.A. CLANCY, M.C. DUGGER, A. KLEINHOFS, D.V. WETTSTEIN
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
Washington State University
Objectives and Rationale
The WSU barley breeding program's primary objective is to release new varieties that are
higher yielding, better adapted and/or with higher quality than the comparable varieties
currently being grown in the state. Agronomic traits, malting and brewing quality, and
nutritional quality are evaluated during selection. The majority of breeding lines are 2row,
and 6-row spring types as these are used most commonly in rotations. There has
been a shift to more emphasis on 2-rows vs 6-rows in the last few years.
Barley is an important agricultural commodity in Washington State and has had an
average rank of 16 th over the last 5 years among the top 40 commodities produced in the
state. Barley is the 3 rd most important agronomic field crop behind wheat and hay.
Washington ranked 4th among states in barley production 1997-2001. Barley production
in Washington was over 21 million bushels from 430,000 acres seeded in 2001. The
average statewide yield for 2001 was 50 bu/a primarily from dryland production.
Baronesse, planted on nearly 73% of the state's barley acreage was the leading cultivar in
2001. Malting types were planted on about 10% of the acreage (about 43,000 acres), and
winter types on about 1%. The recommended malting types grown in rank order were
Harrington, Morex, and Garnet. There is much greater potential for malting barley
production in Washington than is realized. The gap between feed and malting types has
primarily been due to the level of industry activity in the state and the dominance of one
feed cultivar (currently Baronesse, previously Steptoe). The major drive in recent years
has been to replace Baronesse with public and hopefully a malting type varieties.
Methodology
1. Germplasm Development
Modified pedigree-bulk, single seed descent, and doubled haploid breeding techniques
are employed along with molecular marker assisted selection techniques in collaboration
with A. Kleinhofs. Parent building, as well as line development, occur utilizing
Midwestern varieties for the 6-row quality base, western U.S. and Canadian varieties for
the 2-row quality base and European varieties for diversity in combinations with adapted
western genotypes and for export quality base. Although most European varieties are
inferior to North American varieties in malting quality by U.S. standards, there is
potential to derive U.S. export types. The adaptation of some European 2-row cultivars to
western U.S. conditions has been very good in recent years as well. Adaptation factors
primarily include yield, lodging resistance, and barley stripe rust resistance.
Cooperation particularly among the Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Oregon and Washington)
breeders has been occurring through annual research review meetings and germplasm