Carl Griffey, professor of crop and soil environmental sciences at Virginia Tech, leads the university's wheat and barley breeding programs to develop new varieties that are resistant to insects and disease while yielding large quantities of grain. He also researches and develops novel grains, such as hulless barley, that may allow area producers to grow crops especially for niche markets.
Virginia Tech releases barley and some wheat varieties on a public basis, but they also provide wheat varieties to private companies. The companies test experimental wheat lines for performance in their areas, and then obtain rights to market such varieties under their own brand name. This work is important, Griffey says, because there are only three private breeding programs developing varieties in the southeast and none have research facilities in the mid-Atlantic region.
"This friendly competition and cooperation between private and university breeding programs lead to better products," Griffey says. "In addition, our students are getting experience and training that prepares them to be plant breeders in the private sector."
One of Griffey's major objectives is to develop varieties that do not require the application of fungicides. That's an ambitious goal, because grains are susceptible to many diseases. But limiting fungicide use is important, Griffey says, not only to protect the environment, but also because the cost of a fungicide spray can make the difference between a net gain or loss on a crop.
"We need to keep working to produce varieties that are as high producing as possible with very few inputs of fungicides and insecticides," he says.
An additional problem results from the natural process through which disease resistance usually breaks down, sometimes in only a year or two. He hopes to develop wheat and barley cultivars that have durable disease resistance.
As part of their commitment to development of new products, Griffey and his colleagues have been working with hulless barley, white wheat, soft wheat with strong protein or strong gluten, and bread wheat.
Low commodity prices are creating interest in value-added wheat. Griffey's work developing and testing new varieties, such as hulless barley and non-traditional wheat varieties possessing traits that add to the value of the cop, may provide area producers with more choices of crops that have the potential to return good profits. Producing bread wheat varieties in addition to soft red winter wheat for crackers and cakes could increase Virginia's producer's income by at least $10 million, according to Griffey.
Work with hulless barley has been ongoing since 1995, and a variety should be released in about two years. It is targeted for use in animal feed, human food, and ethanol production.
Ruminants are able to digest barley with hulls, because their digestive process allows them to process the fiber. But poultry and swine, the main animals fed in the mid Atlantic, are much more able to handle the lower fiber content of hulless barley.
The USDA is performing clinical food testing to validate the health-related benefits of barley in humans. Initial results have shown that barley has many of the same benefits as oats.
In the mid-Atlantic region, work is being done to determine the feasibility of using hulless barley in ethanol plants, where it would be desirable because it would be less abrasive than the hulled varieties. And a hulless barley bred to be high in starch, and therefore high in energy content, would seem ideal for ethanol production, Griffey says.
PR CONTACT: Netta Benton 540-231-7638 netta@vt.edu