Malt Barley Research Projects

Seeding rates influence malt quality

A unique malting barley research project has found relatively high barley seeding rates can actually improve malt quality.

The prairie-wide study by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is the first of its kind to examine the importance of agronomic factors on malting barley seed and malt quality.

Research scientist Dr. John O’Donovan of AAFC’s Lacombe Research Centre says while kernel plumpness tends to decrease at higher seeding rates, most other quality parameters improve with increasing seeding rate. This includes a reduction in days to maturity, more uniform kernel size, lower barley and malt protein, lower beta-glucan and better friability and uniformity of endosperm modification. These are all desirable characteristics.

The project indicates that 300 seeds/m2 will, in most cases, optimize yield and quality with an increased risk of yield loss at higher seeding rates (above 300 seeds/m2), especially in the grey wooded soil zones.

Researchers used AC Metcalfe and CDC Copeland based on differences in their levels of diastatic power (starch degrading enzymes). Both varieties are in the acceptable range of diastatic power, with AC Metcalfe at the higher end and CDC Copeland at the lower end.

“Our objective is not necessarily to compare the performance of the two varieties, but to try to develop agronomic practices that improve the quality of both varieties, and identify a range of agronomic practices that best suit different varieties,” says O’Donovan. “Our preliminary results are already showing some differences between the two varieties in terms of yield and quality but it is too early to make specific recommendations. Once all the information is available, we are confident that it will help barley breeders develop varieties that optimize malt yield and quality.”

The study is investigating the effects of:

• barley variety and nitrogen rate at a low and high seeding rate
• barley seeding rate at early and late seeding dates
• residue type and fungicide treatment at low and high nitrogen rates.

Experiments have been carried out on various soil types in Alberta at Bow Island, Beaverlodge, Lacombe and Ft. Vermilion; in Saskatchewan at Scott, Canora and Indian Head; and in Manitoba at Brandon.

As expected, seed yield of both barley varieties at most locations increased with increasing nitrogen rate but malt quality tended to be compromised at the higher rates. For example, at higher nitrogen rates, number of days to maturity increased, there was greater variability in kernel size, barley and malt protein, and beta-glucan increased, and there were indications of reduced friability.

“Interestingly, the decrease in friability with increasing nitrogen rate tended to be greater with one variety compared to the other,” says O’Donovan. “Once the study is complete, we hope to be able to recommend a balance between nitrogen rate and the other agronomic factors to achieve the best yield and quality possible.”

Funding for the project is provided by the Alberta Barley Commission, the Canadian Wheat Board, Rahr Malting and the AAFC Matching Investment Initiative. Researchers are also working closely with Dr. Mike Edney of the Canadian Grain Commission.

This article originally appeared in Barley Country in March 2008.

Alberta’s next malting barley could be just a ‘stone’s throw’ away
It takes 10 to 12 years to develop a new Canadian cereal crop variety – almost exactly the number of years plant breeder Dr. Pat Juskiw has worked to create new varieties of malting barley for Alberta producers. Juskiw joined the Alberta Field Crop Development Centre in Lacombe in 1988 as a research agronomist and took over the malt barley breeding research program in 1997.

In the decade since, much of her professional time and passion have been poured into developing commercially viable, disease- and pest-resistant varieties of malting barley ideally suited to Alberta’s climate. Throughout that time, Juskiw’s research has been supported by the Alberta/Canada Barley Agreement, a joint funding program supported by the Province of Alberta, the Government of Canada and the Alberta Barley Commission.

It’s been fours year since Juskiw and her colleagues at the Crop Development Centre registered a new two-row spring barley variety. Ponoka (Hordeum vulgare L.), approved in 2003 as a feed barley, is just now, is just now hitting the market.

“We’ve had a lot of successes incorporating multiple disease resistance within the malting barley program but never made it completely through the registration process,” says Juskiw. “As well, we have developed NIRS [near infrared reflectance spectroscopy] calibrations to use in early generation selection for malting quality. It took a few years to fine-tune that process.”

Today, Juskiw believes – and has the science to back it up – that two made-in-Alberta malting lines are a relative stone’s throw away from making it through the rigorous federal registration process. These lines are growing today in a number of test plots in the Lacombe area. One line, known as TR05669, is in its second year of collaborative testing. Collaborative tests are non-replicated field trials conducted across western Canada with the express purpose of gathering samples for rigorous malting tests.

For the Prairie Recommending Committee for Oat and Barley http://www.pgdc.ca/to recommend a malting variety for registration to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the barley quality evaluation team needs two years of collaborative test results. The other line, TR05671, is being jointly developed with Rahr Malting.

“If TR05671 lives up to its quality traits this year, we will have a winwin situation of having a breeding program and malting company working together to produce specialty malting varieties,” says Juskiw.

Plant breeding is a delicate balancing act, and in the case of malting barley, creating a variety that’s highly scald resistant can reduce malting quality. The Niobe variety, which had a single gene for scald resistance, was originally developed as malting barley but in collaborative trials didn’t prove to have the low beta glucans now sought by industry users. In 2002, Niobe was registered as a feed barley and has been used in further research to increase scald resistance and malting quality.

“The challenge with malting barley,” says Juskiw, “has been getting good malting traits combined with good scald resistance. We’ve been looking at a link between malting barley and scald, and validating genes in the field and through marker work with NIRS malting quality to see if we can break down the linkage.”

This work comes down to studying and understanding how barley’s seven pairs of chromosomes interact, link, divide, cross, break and reattach. It involves an enormous amount of data analysis of large sample sizes – and it takes patience.

“Science takes time,” says Juskiw. “It took more than a decade to develop AC Metcalfe as a replacement for Harrington http://www.grainscanada.gc.ca/Quality/barley/2006/harrington06hs-e.htm, and another decade for it to topple Harrington as the Canadian malting barley.

“Creating a malting barley breeding program in Alberta has been a great challenge. Malting barley is a premium crop and we have a mature industry that knows what it wants – and we’re now at a stage in our breeding program to provide the Alberta industry with the quality product it desires.”
This article originally appeared in Barley Country June 2007.

The cooperating scientists on this project include Jim Helm, Joseph Nyachiro of the Alberta Field Crop Development Centre in Lacombe and Kelly Turkington, K. Xi, G. Clayton of the Lacombe Research Centre.

Additional malt barley projects
The Alberta Barley Commission also provides funds for the following feed barley research projects:

Improvement of Malt Barley Quality and Seed Homogeneity through Optimization of Agronomic, Genetic, and Environmental Factors.

This project aims to develop and evaluate improved management systems for current malt barley varieties that compare quality (plumpness and protein) and homogeneity (seed uniformity) for the processing requirements of maltsters.

Cooperating scientist:
John O’Donovan, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe Research Centre.

Funding:
$ 130,000 - Alberta Barley Commission
$ 130,000 - Canadian Wheat Board
$ 40,000 - Rahr Malting Canada Ltd.
$ 225,000 - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada