The assessment of grain quality indicators in spring barley cultivars and lines

The requirements for assessment of new barley cultivars quality, imposed on plant breeding research, can be very different, even contradictory, depending on the intended use. The study of 13 competitive variety test numbers carried out in Moscow region in 2013-2018 helped to reveal the most promising ones, capable of producing grain with high biochemical and technological quality indicators. The great value for forage use was demonstrated by the samples with a high protein and essential amino acid lysine content as well as a high level of exchange energy in the grain. It has been established that a new forage variety Zlatoyar accumulated the maximum protein content (13.9%) and essential amino acid lysine content (0.52%) with productivity of 7.55 t/ha in different by humidity years. The grain of naked barley dyhaploid form 9h1137 had the optimal nutritious content: 151 g of crude protein, 31 g of crude fat, 667 g of nitrogen-free extractives, and 18 g of cellulose per 1kg of dry mass. It was noted, that those cultivars were characterized by the exchange energy of 11.39-11.82 Mj per 1 kg of cattle forage, and 13.22-14.33 Mj per 1 kg of pig forage. The valuable material for brewery purposes corresponding with the international quality standards has been developed. The Nadezhny variety was selected as well as promising lines 141/1-09 h 746; 85/1-13 h 1067, 181/3-12 h 897, which had a higher content of extractives in the grain (79.9-82.5%). In favorable vegetation conditions, they had grain protein content of 10.6-11.2%, which corresponded with the highest grade of the international standards for malting qualities of grain. In dry vegetation conditions, the protein content did not exceed 12.4%. The edibility characteristics of barley cultivars were evaluated by technological parameters of grain and porridge as a finished product. The laboratory test for the barley groat qualities gave the following results: the grain unit (709-711 gram per liter), 1000 grain mass (50.551.8 g), kernel hardness (42.8-46.2%), groat grain output per 4 minutes (56.5-57.7%), the color of finished porridge (4.8-5.0 grades). It helped to identify the Nur and the Zlatoyar varieties as especially valuable for peeled-barley and pearl barley groats.