Registration of ‘Buck’ Naked Barley

Abstract

‘Buck’ (Reg. No. CV‐363, PI 682744) is a naked (hull‐less), six‐row barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivar with winter growth habit. The cultivar was released by the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station in 2015. The name Buck was chosen because the cultivar is naked. Prior to being named, Buck was tested under the experimental designation 09OR‐86. In high‐rainfall environments, it had a yield advantage over the naked check and had an excellent test weight. When grain yield was adjusted for the weight of hulls, Buck was competitive with all checks. Buck is resistant to barley stripe rust and moderately resistant to leaf rust. Buck was developed as a whole‐grain human food barley. However, multi‐use (e.g., food, malting, and feed) is an option. Feeding data are not available. Malting quality data indicate that Buck has higher malt extract than current covered (hulled) malting cultivars. Buck is the first naked winter cultivar to be released with adaptation to the US Pacific Northwest.

Investigating Grain-on Malt Whiskey Production Using Naked Barley

“…Buck barley showed yields that were lower than covered barley (6,485 kg/ha compared to an average of 7,022 kg/ha for the covered checks). However, when yields were adjusted by 12 percent to account for husk removal, Buck yielded slightly more than the covered barleys studied [6]. The premiums that Buck will command are currently unknown.…”

“…The lack of an adhering hull is the phenotypic result of a recessive allele at the nud gene located on chromosome 7H [3,4]. The lack of hull results in naked barley consisting of proportionally more starch, protein, and β-glucan than covered barley [5,6]. Naked barley is typically used only for food and animal feed, as the hull is important for efficient lautering during production of most malt whiskey and beer [4].…”