Foundation seed of WA7999-88 will be produced in 1996. It has operated under a decentralized system since 1992 involving WSU, the Washington Barley Commission, the Washington State Crop Improvement Association, Great Western Malting Company, and county coordinators. Ten counties and 26-42 growers have been involved each year. Growers conduct the tests on their farms with their own equipment. There is usually a single replication of four to ten varieties per location.
Farms are replications for analysis purposes.
The project has extension as well as research value. Results of the on-farm tests have been complimentary to those of the conventional small plot trials. Yield ranks among varieties have not differed between the two test systems. In the future, tests will be conducted within counties independently or by Great Western Malting Company in selected environments with malting varieties. The WSU breeding program has been contributing directly by evaluating the doubled haploid mapping populations in the field and lab.