This year’s Cereals in Practice (CiP) event, hosted by SCRI, will be focusing in part on new advances in commercial barley breeding powered by technology originally used in human genome studies.

CiP has become a major feature in cereals producers’ calendar after the combining of SCRI’s Cereal Solutions event and SAC’s Central Cereals trials for the first time last year.

It is a ‘must-attend’ event for anyone interested in cereal farming and associated industries. It takes place at Balruddery Farm by Fowlis in Angus on Thursday 8 July from 1 pm to 7 pm.

CiP helps support high quality barley production that underpins the UK’s £20 billion pound malting, brewing and distilling sectors, including the £4 billion whisky industry, the UK's biggest food and drink export.

To maintain and increase competitiveness in these sectors improved barley varieties that continually outperform their predecessors are vital which is why the Association Genetics of UK Elite Barley (AGOUEB) project was developed and funded by BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council), Defra and the Scottish Government through the Sustainable Arable LINK programme.

The project brought together a consortium of breeders and geneticists, together with representatives from the barley supply chain, to develop and utilise powerful genotyping technologies in a new 'association mapping' approach to genetic analyses.

Professor Robbie Waugh, project leader from SCRI, explains: "AGOUEB is testimony to the value of having a longer-term vision and investment in crop science. By developing and using this new technology we have gained a much better understanding of what combinations of genes are required to make a good UK barley variety and we are working with the breeding community to improve economically important characteristics such as yield and resistance to pests and disease."

The partners in AGOUEB developed a genetic marker technology that allows thousands of genes located in specific segments across the barley genome, to be characterised in a single experiment at a tiny fraction of the cost of previous approaches. They then used this technology to determine the detailed genetic make-up of around 1000 barley cultivars and correlated the genetic make-up surrounding each genetic marker with a range of traits. By doing this AGOUEB has been able to identify segments of the barley genome that contribute positively to a broad range of characteristics. It has even allowed them to isolate a gene involved in plant pigmentation and another in determining floral structure.

"This aspect of the project is important because it provides both molecular diagnostics that can be efficiently used in plant breeding and a DNA sequence template for discovering natural gene variants that may perform better than those currently available," explains Professor Waugh.

During the CiP event, practical advice for cereal growers facing real challenges will be available on the SAC demonstration sites and stands at Thursday’s event. The aim is to offer both a medium and longer term view of the options available to the cereals sector. From the latest information on genetics and plant breeding, to the response of new varieties to Scottish conditions and management methods.

According to the Head of SAC Consulting Jonathan Cowens, "Scottish farmers face the same challenge today as they will tomorrow. They must maximise the yields of the crops and varieties demanded by the market in a way that is both economically and environmentally sustainable. At Cereals in Practice SAC offers farmers solutions in new candidate varieties in spring barley, winter barley and winter wheat. New Varieties need to produce a consistency of response before inclusion on the Scottish Recommended List".

Balruddery Farm hosts SAC’s central Scotland agronomy site as well as SCRI’s own extensive research plots, giving growers and advisers an unrivalled breadth of field based demonstrations from fundamental science through to practical, crop protection applications in the growing crop. Cereals in Practice also includes contributions from industry partners, in both the processing, plant protection and manufacturing sectors.

Full details of the programme and directions to Balruddery Farm can be found on the Cereals in Practice 2010 page.