My duties include developing improved barley varieties, researching plant breeding methods, and investigating inheritance of economic traits. I teach and advise students in plant breeding. Currently variety development research emphasizes breeding for resistance to fusarium head blight. Other breeding goals include obtaining resistance to several barley diseases, enhancing malting and brewing quality and improving field performance.
Genetic investigations focus on disease resistance and ideotype traits.
The project benefits from a partnership with growers and industry users of barley and collaboration with other barley researchers. Selection procedure based on cross and line performance. Rasmusson, D.C. 1992. Barley breeding at present and in the future. In Proceedings of the 6th International Barley Genetics Symposium.