Manitoba, Canada

Barley production and cultivar development from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for western Canada.

M.C. Therrien

AAFC Brandon Research Centre

Brandon, MB., Canada

Barley Production in western Canada 2008:

According to the Canada Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC; Crop Report 2 July 2008), the Canadian barley crop can be summarized as follows:

Total Seeded Acres: 9,078,000 (Down approx. 2 million ac. from 2007)

Seeded by Type:

Two-row malting: 4,630,000 acres

Six-row malting: 908,000 acres

Non-malting: 3,540,000 acres

About 61% of the total acreage was sown to malting barley, which is some 9% below the five-year average of 70%. Nearly all of the reduction is from the two-row malting class, which is believed to be largely a result of the marketing uncertainties for malting barley in western Canada. Also contributing to the overall production drop of some 18% is the switching from barley to (the more lucrative) wheat for biofuel (gasohol) production and the increase in canola production. There is also a roughly 12% drop in non-malting barley production and that can be attributed almost exclusively to a corresponding drop in livestock numbers – primarily beef cattle and swine.

The break-down in production for three prairie provinces (CMBTC report) is as follows:

Manitoba: 770,000 ac. (69% malting)

Saskatchewan: 3,875,000 ac. (83% malting)

Alberta: 4,233,000 ac. (37% malting)

(Eastern Canada: 200,000 ac. nearly all feed types)

The proportion of malting barley is consistent with past production for all three provinces, indicating an overall reduction in barley production, as opposed to a shift from malting to feed types, or vice-versa. Production of barley in eastern Canada has remained relatively unchanged, as it is mainly destined for local use in livestock.

AC Metcalfe continues to dominate the barley acreage, with nearly 2.8 million acres, or about 30% of the total production in Canada. The only other two-row malting cultivars with significant acreage are CDC Copeland (c. 676K ac.) and CDC Kendall (c. 591K ac.). The only six-row malting with significant acreage is Legacy, with c. 405K ac. There is no detailed information regarding the acreage of non-malting barley cultivars in Canada, which includes forage, feed and (a small amount of) food types. Limited information suggests that AC Ranger, a six-row forage barley, is a likely front-runner with c. 270K ac. of production in 2008. This is still well below the acreage sown to leading malting cultivars, indicating the continued preference to malting cultivars by most producers. Also, forage and feed production are mainly on-farm using ‘bin-run’ seed. This legitimate (common ) practice results in no sale of grain or forage and, hence, no statistical records. Indirect evidence, from statistics on cattle feed consumption, indicates that forage barley use may exceed 1 million acres across Canada.

AAFC Breeding Program:

The program continues to be on track and has recently registered and released several new barley cultivars in several classes. The two-row malting barley TR05915 is in the process of being registered and will be the fifth two-row malting cultivar released by the program. TR05915 is a derivative of CDC Kendall and is a joint release between AAFC Brandon and the Crop Development Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK. TR05915 is basically CDC Kendall with improved resistance to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and having 50% lower deoxinivalenol (DON) mycotoxin vs. CDC Kendall. Having the attributes of CDC Kendall, it is expected that TR05915 will be more readily accepted into the market. The two row malting effort continues to develop new germplasm with improved malting quality, agronomics and disease resistance for the Northern Great Plains.

A new six-row forage barley, Desperado, has been released to FarmPure Genetics (Regina, SK.). Desperado is intended as a replacement for AC Ranger, which is one of the most widely grown forage cultivars in western Canada. This new cultivar maintains the forage quality and grain yield of AC Ranger and demonstrates improved forage yield and grain quality attributes. The forage program continues to produce outstanding cultivars for western Canada and is developing specialized forage barley for use in extended grazing of beef cattle.

Two new milling type barley varieties, HB120 and HB122, are in the final stages of testing and may be released in the next 2 to 4 years. Both demonstrate improvements in agronomic performance and disease resistance, when compared to Millhouse, the first milling barley developed for Canada. It is hoped that either variety will extend Millhouse’s limited area of adaptation, owing to its relatively poor agronomic performance and disease resistance. The milling barley program is still in its early stage of development and hopes to expand as market acceptance of milling barley increases over time.

The Brandon Research Centre is home to the Canadian Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) project, which seeks to develop new barley cultivars with reduced levels of deoxynivalenol (DON) mycotoxin. DON is the single largest deterrent to barley production in Canada, with crop losses exceeding $1 billion. Production of low DON cultivars is being advanced with over 17,000 accessions being grown and evaluated annually in our FHB nursery. The nursery involves a number of major cultivar development and research groups, including the Crop Development Centre, Saskatoon, SK., the Field Crop Development Centre, Lacombe, AB., researchers involved with the NABSEN nursery and barley pathologists throughout Canada and the U.S. The efforts, to date, have resulted in the release of six barley cultivars with reduced DON levels and have identified dozens of genotypes that have the potential to be released as low-DON cultivars.