Barley

Barley - Hordeum vulgare

(two-row, multi-row barley)

Barley is ranking among the most important crops worldwide in cultivation area, following wheat, maize and rice. Global barley production in 2007/2008 was 134 million tons. The biggest producers were Europe, Russia and Canada. Similar to wheat, barley is distinguished into winter and spring barley. Spring barley is sown in spring and matures in less than 100 days. Its grain yield of 40 to 70 dt/ha is lower than that of winter barley (50 to 100 dt/ha).

For Animal Feed and Beer

Barley is particularly suitable as livestock feed, which is also the predominant form of use. In human consumption, barley plays the biggest role in beer production, besides uses in the baking industry, in the production of liquors, breakfast cereals, groats and pearl barley.

Successful Breeding and Varietal Diversity

In the 1970ies, the yellow mosaic virus that infests barley had widely spread in Germany and the neighbouring European countries, jeopardizing barley cultivation in many regions in Europe. Cultivation would have had to be discontinued in the infested regions, had the plant breeding industry not succeeded in developing resistant and particularly resilient barley varieties. Another breeding progress was the development of varieties with diversified grain maturity times. Spreading harvest in time reduces the weather dependency and minimizes harvest risks. In 2004, farmers could choose between 140 different barley varieties to suit their particular cultivation situation and the intended utilization.

Vying for High Yields and Virus Resistance

The use of molecular markers is enormously speeding up cycle times in the breeding industry. Barley breeders expect to profit from biotechnological progress and increasing knowledge of genetic properties to further enhance barley, notably with respect to the main breeding objectives: yield increase, yield stability as well as improved virus resistance.