Comparative analysis of winter barley varieties according to productivity, its components and grain quality in the Rostov region

Among the grain forage crops in the Russian Federation, barley ranks first in terms of multi-use and gross yields. However, the current level of grain production of this crop does not fully meet the needs of the livestock and food industries. Winter barley varieties are currently approved for use in the North Caucasus, Middle Volga and Nizhnevolsk regions of the Russian Federation, where its yield is 1.5–2 times higher than that of spring barley. According to the trait ‘productivity’ barley varieties of various breeding institutions have quite significant fluctuations in the regions of their cultivation, and therefore inter-station tests are carried out to determine their response. The best ones are further used in various breeding projects. The purpose of the current paper was to analyze the trait ‘productivity’ and its components and grain quality among present local and foreign winter barley varieties, in order to use the identified ones in crossings parental forms. The monitoring of varieties was carried out on the experimental plot of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “ARC «Donskoy” (2017–2019). The subjects of the study were winter barley varieties (29 samples) of local and foreign origin. Based on the results of a system analysis, there has been identified a number of varieties that have the necessary combinations of traits important for breeding, such as:– high productivity (the multi-row varieties ‘Marusya’, ‘Vivat’, ‘Foks 1’, ‘Erema’, ‘Artel’, ‘Dostoyny’ (Russia), ‘KWS-Scala’ (Germany), ‘Capten’ (France));– coarse-grained (the multi-row lines ‘KWS-117’, ‘KWS-234’, ‘KWS-History’ (Germany) and the two-row varieties ‘Explorer 3’, ‘Explorer 4’, ‘Explorer 5’, ‘Explorer 7’, ‘Explorer 3/2’, ‘Explorer 4/2’, ‘Bronskyli’ (France) with more than 50 g);– head density per 1 m2 when harvesting (the two-row varieties ‘KWS-History’ with 704 pcs/m2, ‘KWS-117’ with 710 pcs/m2 (Germany), ‘Explorer 8’ with 739 pcs/m2, ‘Explorer 3/2’ with 759 pieces/m2, ‘Wintwalt’ with 847 pieces/m2 (France));– number of grains per head (the multi-row varieties ‘Marusya’ with 57.9 pcs, ‘Andryusha’ with 55.8 pcs (Russia), ‘Capten’ with 55.6 pcs (France) and two-row varieties ‘Explorer 3’ with 26.0 pcs., ‘Explorer 5’ with 25.9 pcs., ‘Bronskyli’ with 25.8 pcs (France);– stable protein percentage in grain less than 11 % (the two-row varieties ‘KWS-History’ with 10.3 %, ‘KWS-234’ with 10.7 % (Germany) and ‘Explorer 3/2’ with 10.3 % (France).