Genomes to Growlers | Case Study | GEMS Informatics
The Changing Demand for Malting Barley
Hand in hand with the dramatic rise in micro-breweries across the US, there has been a change in consumer demand of the barley used to produce the beer they drink. The emphasis is on locally-sourced ingredients and environmentally friendly growing conditions.
Impact and partners
GEMS has collaborated with Kevin Smith (UMN’s barley breeder), Jeff Neyhart (USDA-ARS) and breeders from other states to better target their barley breeding efforts, cognizant of these new, and still evolving, market demand realties. This involves generating information products that support decisions to breed the right varieties for the right agro-ecologies to best serve the changing supply chain.
Process and problem solved
GEMS is building out a suite of modularized, increasingly-more powerful analytical tools that help breeders optimize the choices that make in terms of which genetics to test, in which locations, for which season (winter versus spring), and under what crop management strategies. The overarching objective is to provide an on-going stream of actionable information to inform the optimal development and deployment of new barley varieties given the spatially and temporally variable market and environmental realities faced by farmers.
