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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Aberdeen, Idaho » Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research » Research » Research Project #437067

Research Project: Development of Spring and Winter Malt and Specialty Barleys for Idaho

Location: Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research

Project Number: 2050-21000-034-030-T
Project Type: Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jul 1, 2019
End Date: Jun 30, 2020

Objective:
Development of barley varieties and germplasm. We aim to improve barley cultivars with desired agronomic and quality traits that will benefit growers and industry. The long term goal is to develop and release new barley cultivars and germplasm that has better yield potential plus either superior malting quality for malting barley or better nutrient quality for food barley.

Approach:
The proposed work involves using both traditional breeding approach, double haploid technology, and molecular approaches. The traditional breeding approach will be used in crossing, evaluation, and selection. All the material advancement will be conducted in field, greenhouse, and winter nurseries. Double haploid will be used for the targeted crosses for rapid development of stable offspring. The molecular work will focus on the molecular marker identification for their linkage to important traits. Utilizing existing testing locations and off-season winter nurseries for the F2 and F4 generations, populations will be advanced to the F5 generation in bulk and F5:6 lines derived for yield evaluation. Lines will be derived from plants as opposed to spikes, and will therefore begin yield evaluation directly following derivation. Quality evaluation for malt quality will begin with the advanced yield trials, following at least two years of prior yield evaluation.