New Varieties:

AC Ranger. This six-row forage cultivar in the process of being registered and is distributed by Quality Assured Seeds (Regina, SK.). This variety combines high forage yield and quality, along with high grain yield and a good agronomic package, to allow for production of silage, greenfeed, or grain for cattle producers. AC Ranger is widely adapted across the Canadian prairies and its commercial release is expected in 2002.

Breeding Effort:

a. Malting: The six-row malting barley program continues with the support of AgriCore Inc., under their UltraBred ™ program. One line, BT 386, has reached collaborative scale testing and will be targeted for the U.S. malting market, should it continue to perform well in malting and brewing tests. Other lines are in advanced stages of development, as well. The ongoing prevalence of Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) on the eastern prairies has changed the focus of this program to FHB resistance. A large FHB nursery has been established to screen new malting lines for resistance to the pathogen and reduced levels of mycotoxins. This is in partnership with the University of Saskatchewan, other AAFC Centres, and is funded from multiple sources.

b. Forage: The forage program has returned to full operation after a 10 year hiatus, in response to the needs of an expanding beef cattle industry in western Canada. One variety, AC Ranger, is in the process of being commercially released (see above), while a second variety, tested as F366-1, may be released as early as February 2001. Both varieties are the product of intense selection for combining high forage and grain yield. Future efforts will continue to identify high biomass and grain production, with special emphasis on disease resistance.

c. Feed: Traditional (covered) feed barley varieties will no longer be produced from this program. Varieties with ultra-high grain production capabilities will come from the forage program, which is aimed at beef cattle producers. In its' place, we have developed a hulless feed barley effort. This effort, consisting entirely of six-row genotypes, will produce new varieties with very high yield potential, in order to compete with the upcoming new classes of (ultra-high yielding) feed wheat varieties. These new varieties must also thresh as freely as their wheat counterparts to be acceptable in the target market as a main feed ration in the hog industry. These new varieties must also demonstrate a reasonable level of resistance to FHB and its associated mycotoxins. As yet, we do not have any advanced lines meeting these criteria.

d. Food, Functional Food, and Nutraceutical Use: We have initiated a two-row hulless breeding program aimed at developing new varieties having food, functional foods, or nutraceutical properties, singly, or in combination. As part of this effort, we have developed a process for producing (soft) flour tortillas made entirely out of (hulless) whole barley flour (patent pending). The advantage, over standard wheat-based tortillas, is the increase in dietary fiber, vitamin E, and other enhancement in nutritional value, as well as increased shelf life and the enhanced ability to resist "sogging". We also have one variety, HB 109, in co-operative registration trials, which could be ideally suited for production of these tortillas and similar products. HB 109 was developed, in part, through the use of a novel screening process that was developed jointly with (ourselves and) the Cereal Research Centre, in Winnipeg. MB. The CRC lab is also assisting our breeding efforts in developing screening protocols for detection of useful levels of functional foods and nutraceuticals in upcoming new lines from our breeding program.

Research:

a. Disease resistance: In addition to the large effort in developing FHB resistant barley varieties (as per above), we are continuing to screen for resistance to leaf diseases, the major species of smuts, and stem and leaf rust. We continue to use field and glasshouse nurseries to screen breeding lines for resistance to these pathogens. As well, we have added Molecular Marker Assisted Selection (MMAS), genetic modification, and doubled haploidy, to our efforts at finding and fixing new sources of resistance. This is an ongoing effort, and we are making good progress to date.

b. Weed competitiveness: Along with colleague Doug Derksen and Ph.D. candidate Paul Watson, this Centre, we will investigate the various mechanisms that allow barley to be amongst the most weed-competitive of crops. Our earlier studies established that barley was, indeed, highly weed-competitive and that the mechanisms involved were fairly complex and could not be fully elucidated. Weed competitiveness is a highly useful trait that can be used as an environmentally friendly tool for weed control and management. Development of a highly weed-competitive barley cultivar could appreciably reduce herbicide load in the environment. This study hopes to identify specific traits that could be selected in a breeding program for weed-competitiveness.

The above R & D effort would not have been possible without the generous financial contributions of the farmers of Saskatchewan and Manitoba though a volunteer check-off administered by the Western Grains Research Foundation, as well as the financial and in-kind contribution of Agricore. Their continued support is most gratefully acknowledged.