2001 Report of the Alberta Barley Development Group

Manuel J. Cortez, James H. Helm, Patricia E. Juskiw, Don Salmon, Jennifer Zantinge, Kequan Xi, George Clayton, Kelly Turkington, Joseph Nyachiro and Mike Oro

Alberta/Canada Development Group

    With better barley prices in 2001, Alberta farmers planted more barley. According to Statistic Canada there were about 2,206 million ha (5,449,000 acres) of barley in Alberta This was 44% of the Canadian barley acreage and 47% of the barley acreage in western Canada. Harrington (44%), AC Metcalfe (22%), and Stein (9%) were the most popular malt varieties sawn in Alberta. CDC Dolly (38%), AC Lacombe (13%), and Bridge (10%) were the most popular feeding varieties sown by Alberta farmers in 2001. Of the cultivars developed and released by the Field Crop Development Centre, Falcon continues to be most popular hulless variety. Seebe is a popular silage variety, and Kasota is a preferred early maturing variety in Alberta.

Breeding Program

    Barley diseases including scald, loose smut, and net blotch are major diseases affecting annually the barley production in Alberta. The breeding program of the FCDC has successfully developed barley varieties or germplasm with multiple gene resistance to these diseases.

Smut resistance: Resistance to smut (U. nuda) has been successfully transferred into a six-row hulled variety with high yield and scald resistance. The breeding program also has developed hulled and hulless semi-dwarf barley lines with loose smut resistance. These lines were tested in the 2001 Western Cooperative Barley Test.

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB): In the second year of testing our germplasm for FHB, 30 breeding lines were identified as FHB resistant. Twelve lines had lower levels of DON compared to the checks. This testing was done in Brandon, Manitoba. In cooperation with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Mexico, Dr. Hugo Vivar and Dr. Lucy Gilchrist, identified different lines from our germplasm as having both ‘type 1’ and ‘type 2’ resistance. The Field Crop Development Center (FCDC) and ICARDA/CIMMYT operate in a close partnership to develop disease resistant barley.

Scald Resistance: New sources of scald resistance were added to our germplasm collection.

Malting Quality: A new Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) calibration for malting quality has been developed. This calibration is more extensive and is based upon fully modified malts. The breeding program is now screening for 11 malting quality characteristics in two-row barley with the probability of expanding to 14 quality characteristics.

Pearled Barley: Since this project started in 1999, new germplasm has been identified. Our current results indicate that two-row hulled barley lines have most of the desirable quality attributes for pearling.

Disease work

    Breeding lines and cooperative trial entries were evaluated by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lacombe for resistance to common root rot for western Canadian barley breeding programs. AAFC pathologists coordinated the inoculation of breeding lines with loose smut. Using the growth facilities of the FCDC, the inoculated material was planted and screened for resistance to loose smut. The barley lines were inoculated with covered smut using a vacuum inoculation technique. These materials were planted in the field during the summer of 2001.

    AAFRD barley breeding lines were evaluated at Lacombe and Edmonton for scald resistance. These lines were planted in a hill plot nursery. Scald screening data were tabulated and sent to cooperative breeding programs for their information and use regarding advancement of material and the genetics of resistance.

    A barley disease survey was conducted by AAFC in Central Alberta in 2001, and results indicated that disease incidence was higher in two-rowed barley than the six –rowed. Net blotch and spot blotch levels were higher in the two-row barley fields, compared to scald that was higher in six-row fields. Common root rot levels was higher in two-row barley fields. Incidence of loose smut was a trace level in about 25% of the barley fields surveyed.