National screening for barley grain defects

Three defects on barley grain can impact on the price paid to grain growers. Black point (BP), kernel staining (KS) and pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) can result in malting barley being downgraded to feed. Resistance to these defects is the best option, and in this project hundreds of breeding lines grown over three years were screened for these traits. A number of lines exhibited resistance to each defect but very few had resistance to all defects. The results from the screening program have been provided to the Australian barley breeders through the Barley Breeding Australia (BBA) program.