Technology Description
Lightning – this is the first facultative two-row multi-use variety in the world! It was developed by Oregon State University (OSU). The variety has excellent disease resistance, resistance to pre-harvest, sprouting, and will be a high yielding variety for those interested in producing barley for feed, pearling, and/or able to adjust malting parameters to achieve suitable quality for brewing and distilling. When fall-planted, in the Pacific Northwest, west of the Cascades, Lightning has a 20 bushel/acre yield advantage over these varieties. Heading dates are comparable. Test weights are significantly better for Lightning. Lightning has excellent resistance to scald, stripe rust, net botch, and powdery mildew. It may have some tolerance to Fusarium Head Blight. Lightning is as winter hardy as the checks, in national trials. When spring-planted, Lightning will have competitive yields, but other spring varieties may be higher yielding. Lightning is resistant to preharvest sprouting, which can be caused by untimely rains at harvest. These same weather events, however, may lead to water sensitivity. When malting parameters are not adjusted to address water sensitivity, Lightning will not be properly modified. Lightning is not on the American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) recommended list, due to its non-conformity with standard malting protocols and the effects of water sensitivity. When maltsters have flexibility to adjust malting parameters Lightning can produce excellent malts. For complete agronomic and quality summaries, please see https://barleyworld.org/barley-info/seed-availability