The NDSU barley breeding program may be working with more European companies in the future. Representatives of two German companies recently visited the NDSU Institute of Barley and Malt Sciences and NDSU Research Extension Center test plots.

Richard Horsley, head of the NDSU barley breeding program, and Karen Hertsgaard, institute communications director, conducted the tours of the institute and test plots.

Johann-Friedrich Strube, managing director of the family-owned barley breeding company of Irlbach, Germany, represented J. Ackerman and Co. Matthais Kessler, manager of the malting barley segments, represented SAATEN-UNION GmbH of Iserhagen, Germany. SAATEN-UNION GmbH is an alliance of seven German family breeding companies.

“Kessler expressed an interest in partnering with us to more globally unite us in our malting barley breeding efforts and production efforts,” Hertsgaard said.

Testing of European varieties by NDSU began in 2006 after discussions with the German trading and services company BaWa. In 2007, testing was expanded to include barley lines represented by SAATEN-UNION. Since then, Horsley has been evaluating about 75 European lines each year, with approximately 45 from SAATEN-UNION.

One European variety initially in the trials, Scarlett, is from Germany. Although Scarlett was added to the American Malting Barley Association’s list of recommended malting barley varieties in 2008, little to none was contracted in North Dakota this summer.

“The goal of our evaluation program of European lines is to identify those that are better adapted to North Dakota than Scarlett and acceptable to U.S. malting companies,” Horsley said.