A breeder uses any number of "tools" (methodologies) to facilitate the selection process, in developing new varieties. A crop reflectance meter is one such potential tool, being able to scan a plot of barley in about 4 seconds. Thus, a fair bit of information can be obtained for a large number of plots in a relatively short time - a practical requirement in a breeding program. Crop reflectance meters have been used, and found useful, for quite some time in agronomy and pathology studies, but little is known of their potential utility in a breeding program. We undertook to assess the utility of a crop reflectance meter over a wide variety of plant breeding applications in barley. We found that crop reflectance has limited uses in a (barley) breeding program. Apparently, the main factor limiting its use is that individual varieties have reflectance 'signatures' based more on morphology and development, than useful breeding outputs, such as biomass and yield response. This would limit the use of this tool to broader agronomic areas, such as fertility and herbicide treatments under monoculture. A newer technology, Digital Image Analysis (DIMA), may prove to be a more useful tool in predicting agronomic responses that are useful in plant breeding.