Development of NIRS Calibrations for Feed, Food and Malting Quality of Hulless Barley.

The Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC) has a long history in development of near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) calibrations for feed, food and malting quality traits for barley (Hordeum vulgare). The ability to measure quality on small samples in a non-destructive way has been very useful for the breeding programs at FCDC.  In the 1990’s there was growing demand by hog producers for better quality feed barley, and NIRS calibrations were developed for  energy, digestible energy, energy digestibility, protein and protein digestibility. Hulless barley by reason of the hulls being removed during the threshing process had higher concentration of digestible nutrients for the pig. With the health claim for barley in the USA and Canada, food usage of hulless barley has grown. Calibrations were developed for starch, lipid, protein, lysine, protein digestibility, beta-glucan, pentosans, soluble fibre, and total fibre. Varieties like ‘Falcon’, a six-row semi-dwarf, were capturing market share for the production of flour and quick cooking barley.  Production of hulless barley for food has remained low but is seen as a potential growth area. Another potential use for hulless barley has been for beer production. With lauter tuns being replaced in some breweries by mash tuns, the need for hulls to filter the wort is no longer needed. The FCDC is working with the Grain Research Laboratory to develop calibrations for malting traits of hulless barley. Initial calibrations have been made for grain protein, 4ml % germination, 8ml % germination, fine extract, alpha-amylase, diastatic power, malt beta-glucan,  friability, viscosity, partly unmodified grains (PUG), and adhering hulls. The calibrations were developed on samples of hulless barley from 2013, with validation of the calibrations with samples from 2014. Little work had been done previously to show that calibrations for these traits in hulless barley could be developed and this work has been novel research with potential for use in the brewing and malting industry.