Published 5:15 pm Monday, February 5, 2024
Efforts to develop new markets for naked barley are near the $10 million mark with the award of a $3.5 million grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
“Plant breeding is a long process, so even though we started this research seven years ago, we’re excited to have some new naked barley releases on the horizon during this cycle,” said Brigid Meints, project director and barley breeder at Oregon State University. “Naked barley is a really exciting crop to work with because there are so many potential end-uses and it is beautiful and flavorful, but there are a lot of challenges associated with turning it into a multi-use crop.”
OSU researchers are working with partners in Oregon, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota and New York.
According to OSU, about 75% of barley grown around the world is used for animal feed. It is also malted, used by brewers and distillers and incorporated into baked goods, soups and cereals.
Most barley has a tough, unpalatable outer hull around the kernel that must be removed before the barley can be eaten. The process strips away most micronutrients and means it can no longer be called a whole grain.
Naked barley has a hull so loose that it usually falls off during harvest, similar to wheat, which means it retains desirable health characteristics and whole grain status.
Meints doesn’t have firm numbers for how many farmers raise naked barley, although it’s “many magnitudes smaller” than those raising covered barley.
Several farmers in Oregon raise it on contract with Hummingbird Wholesale, an organic food store.
On naked barley, the embryo is much more exposed because it doesn’t have a hull to protect it, so farmers must adjust combine and seed cleaner settings to be gentler on the grain.
“The yields may be lower, but the test weight will be higher,” Meints said. “One of our goals is to breed for higher yields in naked barley.”
U.S. farmers seeded about 3.1 million acres of conventional barley in 2023.
Most demand for naked barley comes from restaurants. About 4% of the barley grown in the U.S. is raised for culinary purposes, Meints said.
She also points to interest in the brewing and distilling sector.
“Naked barley for malting, brewing, and distilling has been very understudied, with only a few pockets of research groups around the world occasionally doing a project,” Meints said. “We have a lot of work to do on breeding and end-use quality research in order to offer a new variety or recommendations that will work well and become a regular ingredient in the brewhouse.”
Researchers have completed preliminary studies on food quality traits, malting quality, brewing and distilling quality, disease resistance, weed competitive ability and genetic control of threshability, Meints said.
Additional projects that have been funded include culinary barley product development, brewing performance with varying percentages of naked barley malt with OSU’s fermentation science program, and inoculation studies with seedborne fungi that are particularly problematic for organic growers.
“I feel like we’ve come a long way in seven years but we have so far to go,” Meints said. “And of course, every time we answer one question, it raises a bunch more. But the excitement and community that exists around this crop keeps us motivated even with any setbacks.”
