NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
June 22, 2000
The North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station at North Dakota State University is releasing a six-rowed white barley, Drummond. NDSU six-rowed barley breeder Richard Horsley developed Drummond from a cross he made in 1991 that involved two North Dakota experimental lines and Stander, a cultivar from the University of Minnesota. Drummond will be subject to the 1994 amendments of the Plant Variety Protection Act with the Title V option.
Drummond is named in honor of Bill Drummond, the first executive director of the North Dakota Barley Council. During his career, Drummond also worked as an agronomist for the Malting Barley Improvement Association and as an agent for the NDSU Extension Service.
NDSU scientists have been conducting agronomic and disease evaluations of Drummond in North Dakota since 1994, Horsley says. Data from those evaluations indicate that Drummond has a greater yield potential than Morex, Robust and Foster and is similar in yield to Stander. Drummond has a greater degree of straw strength than any commercially available six-rowed cultivar and is similar in heading date and plant height to Robust.
Drummond is resistant to spot blotch has and better net blotch resistance than any other six-rowed variety. Drummond is similar to Robust in its resistance to Fusarium head blight (scab), Horsley says.
The American Malting Barley Association is currently evaluating Drummond, but AMBA has not yet rendered a decision regarding Drummond's acceptability as a malting variety, Horsley says. In its first-year evaluation, however, Drummond demonstrated satisfactory malting and brewing qualities.
In 1999, North Dakota producers grew about 1.4 million acres of barley, nearly 70 percent of which was the variety Robust. In statewide trials covering many years, Drummond has outperformed Robust, on average, by more than 2 bushels per acre, says Al Schneiter, chair of the Department of Plant Sciences at NDSU. At current feed barley prices and with a planted area similar to 1999, the economic impact of Drummond's yield advantage would mean a revenue increase of about $2.7 million annually for North Dakota producers.
"If Drummond is approved as a malting variety, then the economic impact would be significantly greater," Schneiter concludes.
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Sources: Richard Horsley (701) 231-8124
Al Schneiter (701) 231-8137
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136