Evaluation of grain quality of hulled and hulless barley varieties for use as groats

To effectively use barley varieties for their intended purpose, it is necessary to study thoroughly barley grain quality and to improve specific biochemical and technological indicators of hulled and hulless varieties’ grain. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the grain quality of hulled and hulless spring barley varieties for their suitability for groats production and to establish correlations between grain quality indicators. The study was conducted at the Samara Federal Research Scientific Center of RAS from 2023 to 2025. The material for trials included 16 hulled spring barley varieties and 4 hulless barley varieties from the Competitive Variety Testing. When studying the breeding material of spring hulled barley, there has been identified a group of varieties Bezenchukskiy 2, Lun, Medikum 157, Medikum 269 with a high protein percentage (14.2-14.3%) and optimal technological indicators of grain such as hardness (57.0-60.0%), 1000-grain weight (49.9-56.6 g), grain uniformity (94.5-97.6%) and low hull content (9.1-9.7%) which could be used for groats purposes. The hulless barley varieties Golysh and Nudum 1516, with high protein percentage (16.4-16.7%), hardness (82.0-83.0%), grain uniformity (86.8-88.7%), and the absence of hulls, will improve hulling efficiency and facilitate the groats production process. There has been noted that the grain of the studied barley varieties throughout the research period was good-sized, with a grain nature weight of 682-785 g/l, suitable for groats production. The hulless barley has significantly surpassed hulled varieties in grain nature weight. The correlation results give an opportunity to improve the technological parameters of barley grain. There has been established a close positive correlation between the 1000-grain weight and grain uniformity in hulled barley varieties (0.71**; 0.72**; 0.62*) and hulless varieties (0.95*; 0.95**; 0.99*). The hulless varieties have demonstrated a significant positive correlation between hardness and protein percentage in grain (0.97*; 0.96*).

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