VARIATION IN A BARLEY COLLECTION FOR ENDOSPERM ATTRIBUTES THAT RELATE TO MALTING QUALITY

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Abstract
Éstimates of grain hardness from measurements of milling energy were made on four hundred and eighty barley cultivars. The same cultivars were also subjected to an infra-red analysis used to predict soluble β-glucan and nitrogen contents. The results demonstrated variation for these endosperm characters, with eighteen cultivars having a lower milling energy, and more than a hundred cultivars with a lower soluble β-glucan content than Gerkra, a barley with good malting quality. Of these, nine cultivars were lower for both characteristics. Information about this variation is, therefore, potentially useful when breeding for malting quality.