2000 Report of the Alberta Barley Development Group

Alberta/Canada Development Group

Barley in Alberta

With better grain prices in 2000, Alberta farmers planted more barley. According to Statistics Canada, there were about 2.185 million ha (5,400,000 acres) of barley in Alberta last year. This was 43% of the Canadian barley acreage and 46% of the barley acreage in western Canada. Estimated mean yield for Alberta was 3000 kg/ha (56.3 bu/acre) equal to the Canadian average. Harrington, a two-row malting barley, CDC Dolly, a two-row feed, and AC Lacombe, a six-row feed variety, were the predominant cultivars grown by Alberta farmers.

Breeding Program

In 2000, The Alberta Agriculture Field Crop Development Center, released two new barley varieties, Trochu and Vivar.

Trochu: is a six-row, spring, feed cultivar (PI: 614089) with smooth awns. It has a yellow aleurone. Trochu is high yielding and it has good average percent plump seed, high test weight and kernel weight. In the field, Trochu has intermediate reaction to scald and net blotch.

Vivar: is a six-row, spring, feed cultivar (PI: 614090) with rough awns. It has a yellow aleurone. It is a high yielding variety with large seed, high percent plump, and high test weight. In the field, Vivar has an intermediate reaction to scald and net blotch.

The Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC) of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (AAFRD) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT)/International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) operate in a close partnership to develop disease resistant barley. Dr. Hugo Vivar, a barley breeder with CIMMYT/ICARDA, has developed barley lines resistant to multiple diseases. At FCDC, the genetics of disease resistance in these lines has been incorporated into superior agronomic lines adapted to Alberta conditions. Barley cultivars released by the FCDC including Falcon, Tukwa, Seebe, Kasota, Mahigan, Peregrine, Niska, Vivar, and Trochu have 50 to 100% of their genetics from this program. The value of this germplasm is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Alberta producers and the Alberta economy. There will be long-term benefits to the industry as other breeding programs have access to this germplasm for barley development.

Crosses are being made at the FCDC using the disease resistant material from CIMMYT, Mexico, in an attempt to incorporate their genes into high quality malting, feed and food barley.

Smut resistance: Loose smut (U.nuda) resistance was successfully transferred into six-row and two-row, hulless and hulled breeding lines. These cultivars have high yield and very good scald resistance.

Fusarium Head Blight : A group of breeding lines from our germplasm were evaluated for fusarium head blight in Brandon, Manitoba and Toluca, Mexico. As a result, 30 lines were identified in Brandon as having resistance to this disease. Dr. Vivar from CIMMYT, Mexico, identified 5 lines as having both Type 1 and Type 2 resistance.

Scald Resistance: New sources of resistance to scald were added to our germplasm collection.

These lines may have multiple genes for resistance.

Malting Quality: Continuing with the development of two-row malting barley, five lines were entered into the 2000 Western Two-Row Barley Cooperative Test. These lines have good malting quality, good yielding and very good disease resistance.

Pearled Barley: Under the project Food Barley for the Japanese Market, the breeders have identified new germplasm for pearling. Results so far have indicated that two-row hulled barley are the most likely candidates for pearling.

Biotechnology

In 2000, the Alberta Agriculture Field Crop Development Centre in cooperation with the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lacombe Centre set up a Cereal Molecular Genetics Laboratory. The laboratory will give breeders and pathologists access to molecular biology tools to improve the quality of their programs. This laboratory will focus on the identification of cereal genes, molecular markers, and proteins attributing to diseases resistance, yield and cereal quality.

Dr. Jennifer Zantinge, a molecular biologist, is supervising the research ongoing in this new laboratory and in collaboration with pathologist, Dr. K. Xi, she is currently using AFLP analysis to characterize molecular variability of several scald pathogen races.

Agronomy work

Seedbed Utilization X Fungicide (TILT®) Application Experiment. In preliminary results looking at Harrington barley when planted at Lacombe and using different seeding systems, Drs. George Clayton, Neil Harker and Kelly Turkington found that its emergence was higher from 9" row space than from 12" row space or sweep (scatter seed in a 6-8" band) seeding systems. This resulted in a significantly earlier heading date for barley seeded in 9" rows compared to the other seeding systems. Silage yields reflected a similar trend to emergence where biomass at mid-dough was significantly higher for barley seeded in 9" row space than when seeded in 12" or sweep seeding systems. Fungicide application resulted in higher silage yields when sprayed at flag-leaf, 2-3 leaf stage+flag-leaf and the flag-leaf and heading stage of the crop. Test weight and % plump of Harrington barley was significantly increased when fungicide applications were applied at the flag-leaf stage. Fungicide application significantly increased grain yield at all application times under most of the seedbed utilizations. Seeding in rows resulted in less grain yield compared to the sweep treatment when Tilt® was applied at heading stage and in the unsprayed control plot.

A Crop Model for Spring Barley. In cooperation with Alberta Agriculture Food and Rural Development (Pat Juskiw at FCDC, Lacombe, AB and Len Kryzanowski at Agronomy Unit, Edmonton, AB ), Dr. Y. Jame of the Semi-arid Prairie Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Swift Current, SK, has been developing a crop model for spring barley named SPARC-Barley. This research was funded in part by Alberta Agricultural Research Institute, the Alberta Barley Commission and Agrium.

SPARC-Barley is a processed based crop model that relies on genotypic coefficients (varietal traits) and environmental inputs (soil, weather, management practices) to run known or predicted soil, environmental, and crop growth equations. This model will be a tool to assist producers in making crop management decisions (cultivars, tillage, pesticide applications), specialists in explaining possible differences in production strategies, and researchers in assessing possible agronomic, crop physiology, and cultivar development projects.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Year 2000 was the eighth year of operation under the barley development agreement between Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lacombe and Alberta Agriculture Food and Rural Development (AAFRD).

Pathologists Drs. Kelly Turkington and Kequan Xi, visited CIMMYT, Mexico, August 13- 19,

2000. The objectives of this trip were to learn about plant pathology research in relation to barley breeding at CIMMYT and to evaluate the disease resistance of the Alberta breeding and germplasm materials in CIMMYT nurseries. During this visit, the pathologist strengthened the cooperation between CIMMYT/ICARDA and AAFRD and AAFC in germplasm exchange and future cooperative research.

Now you can reach our home page on ROPIN' the WEB at http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/ministry/pid/fcdc/index.html

References

Alberta/Canada Barley Development Agreement, 2001-2002 Work Plan. An internal work plan guide by Alberta Agriculture, Food & Rural Development, Agriculture & Agri- Food Canada and The Alberta Barley Commission.

T. K. Turkington¹, K. Xi², and J.P. Tewari³

¹Lacombe Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 6000 C&E Trail, Lacombe, AB, T4L 1W1; ²Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, C/O Lacombe Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 6000 C&E Trail, Lacombe, AB, T4L, ³Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics University of Alberta, Edmonton AB Canada T6G 2P5

Large scale hill plot nurseries to screen for resistance to scald were again conducted at both Lacombe and Edmonton (J.P. Tewari, Univ. of Alberta). AAFRD breeding lines were evaluated for scald resistance on 3 dates during the summer of 2000, while at Edmonton material was assessed on 2 dates. Scald screening data were tabulated and recommendations sent to cooperating breeding programs for their information and use regarding advancement of material and the genetics of resistance. In addition, data provided an indication of potential for slow-scalding or delayed development for screened material. Scald development was good at both Lacombe and Edmonton permitting the differentiation of susceptible and resistant lines. At Lacombe average ratings for breeding material were 1.5, 2.8, and 4.6 for the first, second and third rating dates, respectively. Average ratings for the breeding checks were 1.4, 2.7, and 4.9 for the first, second and third rating dates, respectively. Ratings were also collected for regional trial entries in the scald nursery with average ratings of 2.4, 3.8, and 5.8 for the first, second and third rating dates, respectively. At Edmonton average ratings for breeding material were 2.6, and 4.6 for the first, and second rating dates, respectively. Average ratings for the breeding checks were 3.8, and 5.4 for the first, and second rating dates, respectively. Ratings were also collected for regional trial entries in the Edmonton scald nursery with average ratings of 3.7, and 6.0 for the first, and second rating dates, respectively.

During the summer of 2000 international breeding material thought to have scald resistance was also evaluated in the hill plots in addition to breeding material and germplasm from the AAFRD breeding program. Average ratings for the international material were 0.8, 1.3, and 3.1 for the first, second and third rating dates, respectively. Just over 40% of the international entries had scald ratings of 0 on all three rating dates.

The third year of the barley variety rotation experiment was conducted by AAFC Lacombe. Good disease levels and differences among treatments occurred. Preliminary results indicate the potential benefit of rotating barley varieties as a way of reducing the impact of leaf diseases in continuous barley production systems. Increasing levels of scald were observed with three years of Kasota in a row with approximately 8% of the area of the flag leaf-1 infected with scald. Kasota is currently one of the most scald resistant varieties commercially available in Alberta.

A small barley disease survey was again conducted in central Alberta in 2000. Central Alberta experienced a wetter than normal June and July, which delayed crops somewhat and resulted in generally higher disease levels than seen in 1999. Thirty-three barley fields were examined, 22 of which were 2-row and 11 were 6-row barley. For the second year in a row, there were an unusually high number of 2-row barley fields encountered. Disease incidence was generally higher in the 2-row than the 6-row barley. Scald and spot blotch levels were generally higher in 2-row barley fields while net blotch was higher in the 6-row fields. Common root rot levels were higher in 2000 than in 1999, but occurred at the same frequency. Loose smut occurred at trace levels in about 1/3 of the 2-row and 6-row barley fields surveyed. Bacterial blight levels and incidence were higher in 2000 than in previous years. Barley leaf stripe was not noted in this survey.

K. Xi¹, T.K. Turkington², J.H. Helm¹, and C. Bos¹

¹Alberta Agriculture, Field Crop Development Centre, 6000 C & E Trail, Lacombe, Alberta, T4L 1W1,
²Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe Research Centre, 6000 C & E Trail, Lacombe, Alberta, T4L 1W1

Leaf samples with scald symptoms were taken from various barley cultivars in 1997 and 1998 at nine locations in Alberta for examination of pathogenic variability. Two hundred and fifty-six single spore isolates of Rhynchosporium secalis were differentiated into 52 pathotypes using 12 differentials consisting of seven accessions with major resistance genes and five commercial cultivars. Fifty two percent of isolates were denoted to be Pathotype 1 that was virulent on cv. Harrington only; five pathotypes consisting of close to 25% of isolates were virulent on commercial cultivars except for Johnston, and about 45 pathotypes consisting of about 25% of isolates were virulent on commercial cultivars and accessions. None of the differentials was resistant to all pathotypes and many pathotypes were represented by single isolates. There was a difference in pathotype diversity and complexity among locations in Alberta. Calmar, Lacombe and Edmonton sites comprised the greatest number of pathotypes that were virulent on up to seven differentials, whereas for the Beaverlodge, Carstairs, Stettler, and Westlock sites pathotype 1comprised more than 60% of total isolates with a few other pathotypes; Trochu and Vegreville were intermediate in number of pathotypes and their complexity. Discriminant analysis based on the reactions of the 12 differentials also showed divergence in R. secalis virulence among locations. Pathogenic variability associated with location in Alberta is important in the context of breeding for resistance and the use of particular cultivars by producers.