AAC connect barley

AAC Connect is a hulled two-row spring malting barley cultivar widely adapted to western Canada. It was developed from a cross made in 2004 at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Brandon Research and Development Centre, Brandon, Manitoba, to improve resistance to the most important fungal disease of barley Fusarium Head Blight. Deoxynivalenol is the main toxin produced by this fungus that results in barley not being accepted for malting and brewing purposes by the industry, resulting in lower prices to the producer. AAC Connect was evaluated in the Western Cooperative Two-row Barley Registration Test (2012-2013) and the Collaborative Malting Barley Trials (2013-2014) conducted by the malting and brewing industry before being registered in 2016. AAC Connect has a desirable combination of agronomic, malting quality, and disease resistance traits including lower deoxynivalenol accumulation, that should make it a useful cultivar for the malting and brewing industry and producers in areas where Fusarium Head Blight occurs.