In Canada, the Seeds Act states that no person shall sell or advertise for sale in Canada or import into Canada seed of a variety that is not registered in the prescribed manner. Varieties are registered only on the basis of merit, and they must be recommended for registration by at least one of the regional committees. There are three cereal regional committees in Eastern Canada that recommend varieties for registration, namely the Atlantic Advisory Committee on Cereal and Protein Crops (AACCPC), Ontario Cereal Crops Committee (OCCC), and Comité des céréales du Conseil des productions végétales du Québec. Every year, these committees meet in January or February to deliberate variety recommendations for registration in Canada.

In 1996, eight barley varieties from Eastern Canada were supported for registration by AACCPC and/or OCCC. These eight varieties differ in growth habit, spike type, pedigree, and origin (Table 1). However, they share a common feature in that all were derived from F1 hybrids by the bulbosum method. [Note that the bulbosum method was first developed by Kasha and Kao at the University of Guelph, Ontario in 1970.] It took only seven to nine years to develop these varieties after their parents were crossed to produce F1 seeds.

The year of 1996 is unique in two aspects: all new varieties are doubled-haploid lines and a large number of barley varieties were developed by the bulbosum method. This uniqueness probably will not be repeated in the future. W. G. Thompson & Sons uses solely the bulbosum method for its barley breeding program, and will continue to do so. Semico Inc. , in collaboration with Laval University, is now using the anther culture method to produce doubled-haploid lines for its barley breeding program. The Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre will continue to use the bulbosum method to produce doubled-haploid lines, but mainly for use in genetic studies.

Table 1. Eight Eastern Canada barley cultivars supported for reistration by AACCPC and/or

OCCC.

Cultivar	Habit	Spike	Pedigree	Cross	Institution
DB202	Spring	2-row	Morrison/AB94-11	1987-88 winter	Agriculture Canada
T090-017	Spring	2-row	E647/Morrison	1989 winter	Thompson's
T086-156	Spring	2-row	Lester/TBR635-2	1989 winter	Thompson's
T081-009	Spring	2-row	E650-13/E658-44	1989 winter	Thompson's
T103-003	Spring	2-row	Winthrop/Lester	1989 winter	Thompson's
HD87-18.14	Spring	2-row	Morrison/Helena	1987	Semico
HD87-12.1	Spring	6-row	Maskot/Chapais	1987	Semico
H30-11	Winter	6-row	Tapir/Wisor	1989 winter	Thompson's

 

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