Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding

1 year
BREEDING SELF-POLLINATED SPECIES 301
Crossing and F 1 production
3–5 years Breeders’ trials
Single plant/row/miniplot
Multisite trials
Disease resistance, agronomic model
Yield and malting quality
2 years National listing
Ear rows and plot
Multisite trials
1 year Recommended list trials
2 years Provisional recommendation
Distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS)
Value for cultivation and use (VCU)
Multisite trials Performance versus current RL
1–n years General or specific recommendation
Figure 2 Breakdown of the phases in the development of a successful new cultivar from crossing to
commercialization, with the timescale for each step. The exact nature of the scheme adopted in breeders’ trials varies
according to the breeder and crop type, but is either based upon a version of the pedigree or a doupled haploid
system. A cultivar may persist on the recommended list (RL) for n years, where n is the number of years where there
is a significant demand for it.
Certified seed (t)
140,000
Winter
120,000
Spring
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Year
Figure 3 Tonnes of certified barley seed produced in the UK
from 1995 to 2004.
Stock production..................Certified seed production
and the state marketing arm, the National Seed
Development Organization, together with a change in
government policy led to the withdrawal of the public
sector from barley breeding in the UK. Barley breeding
in the commercial sector in the UK is highly competitive
with currently five UK-based crossing and selection
programs. A number of other companies have
their own selection programs based in the UK and
many continental breeders have agency agreements
for the testing and potential marketing of their products.
For example, 41 spring and 34 winter barley lines
were submitted for NLT 1 testing for harvest in 2004 and
these were derived from 16 different breeders.
The amount of certified seed produced for each
cereal variety in the UK is published by the National
Institute of Agricultural Botany. The total annual production
of certified barley seed has been in decline
since its peak of over 250,000 tonnes in 1987, and has
declined by 43% since 1995 with most due to a reduction in winter barley seed (Figure 3). There are a number of potential reasons
for this, such as an increase in farm-saved seed, but the principal feature has been a marked decrease in winter barley cropping
over the period whereas spring barley has remained fairly static and winter wheat has increased. Over this period, certified
seed production has exceeded 100,000 tonnes for two spring (“Opti” and “Chariot”) and two winter (“Regina” and “Pearl”) barley
cultivars and these can be considered notable market successes. There has been substantial production of a number of others but