New barley varieties export smart science to the world

Plant Science

Two new barley varieties being released by the University of Adelaide's Barley Breeding Program - Flagship(tm) and Fleet(tm) - promise to significantly boost exports for the Australian barley industry and provide major gains in yield and disease resistance.

The new malting barley variety Flagship is expected to set a new standard for malting quality for the Japanese, Chinese and South-East Asia malting and brewing markets.

University of Adelaide Barley Program Leader Dr Jason Eglinton said: "These new barley varieties are very different but together offer major benefits for the Australian barley industry and barley growers.

"In breeding these varieties, the University has taken advantage of the cutting-edge research at its Waite campus in plant biotechnology and plant genetics for significant scientific outputs which will have substantial commercial impact for the industry and barley growers."

Flagship has been developed specifically for the large brewing and malting markets in South-East Asia, China and Japan.

It should set a new international benchmark standard for these markets in terms of its malting quality profile. Brewers in these countries use a different method to that of Australian brewers.

The new variety also has major agronomic improvements, showing a 7% increase in grain yield over the current industry standard and improved disease resistance.

Using plant biotechnology techniques has seen the variety developed for commercial release in eight years, well short of the traditional 12-14 years.

Fleet is a feed barley with improved disease resistance and a 5% yield advantage over the established variety Barque.

Fleet also shows improved adaptation to poor soil types, producing even higher yield gains in the sandy soils common in major barley growing areas in South Australia and western Victoria.

The University of Adelaide's commercialisation arm, Adelaide Research and Innovation, has appointed leading Australian agribusiness ABB Grain Ltd as its commercialisation partner for the new varieties.

The University of Adelaide Barley Program developed the new varieties with support from the Grains Research and Development Corporation and private sector investment by the Australian barley industry, including the Malting Barley Quality Improvement Program.

"The commercial launch of the new varieties demonstrates the value of combining university-based research and development with strong industry partnerships," Dr Eglinton said.

Story by Robyn Mills