New cultivar development. With a new program established in 1994, progress has been accelerated in the development of new feed, forage, and hulless barley cultivars. The six-row feed barley BT 377 will be proposed for registration in 1996 after three years of testing in the Western (Canadian) Cooperative Six-Row Barley Registration Test . BT 377 combines high yield and improved disease resistance over Brier, the current six-row feed check cultivar. BT 377 is broadly adapted over western Canada, which is advantageous to currently available cultivars in this class. The six-row hulless barley HB 103 will be proposed for registration in 1996, after three years of testing in the Western (Canadian) Cooperative Hulless Barley Test. HB 103 has large, free-threshing seed suitable for swine rations, with some indications for suitability as food. HB 103 is high yielding and adapted to the eastern prairies of western Canada. There are seven other barley lines in advanced stages of testing, including two malt, two feed, two hulless, and one forage type. Pending successful completion of testing, these lines are scheduled for release no later than 1998.

Progress in the current breeding effort. A combination of support from Prairie Pools, Inc. and a volunteer producer check-off (administered by the Western Grains Research Foundation) has allowed this program the resources and flexibility to accelerate and greatly improve cultivar development. Molecular marker assisted selection (MMAS) is being implemented to identify resistance to key pathogens. As well, the bulbosum doubled haploidy technique will be used to accelerate two-row feed and hulless barley development, initially. We are exploring the use of transformation to enhance quality traits in barley. We are expanding our male-sterile assisted bulk selection (MSABS) effort to include the entire program, which consists of two-row feed, six-row malt, hulless, and forage barley. There is a formal network of colleagues, including some workers in wheat, being established from many disciplines in support of this effort. They are too numerous to mention here, but key roles will be played by colleagues from the University of Saskatchewan/Crop Development Centre, Alberta Wheat Pool, and AAFC Winnipeg Research Centre. Our overall effort is expected to double in two years.

Barley production in Manitoba. The removal of the Grain Transportation Subsidy is having a major effect on barley production, shifting the agricultural industry to livestock and value-added from primary grain production. Production of barley is up by 20%, delivering approximately 50 million bushels. Much of this production is the result of livestock feed demands from an expanding livestock industry. There is also a marked increase in demand for malting barley to the U.S.

The most popular variety continues to be Bedford, at 26% of the total acreage. This is followed by Robust, at 19%; a dramatic departure from traditional patterns. Excel and Stander also contributed 5 and 4%, respectively to the total acreage. Manley, a two-row malt, rounded the top 5 at 14% of the total. Broken down by categories, the six-row feeds lead with 35% of the total acreage, followed closely by six-row malting (for the U.S. market) at 30%, the domestic malting (two and six-row) at 26%, hulless at 7%, and forage at 2%. Since there are only two cultivars designated as forage, this last figure is misleading. It is estimated that approximately 20% of the barley crop was used as forage; a substantial rise from the figure of 7% from last year. Bedford, Lacombe, and Virden were the preferred cultivars for forage production.