Barley ID Course

Identification of Barley Varieties from the Grain

 

To register for either of these courses please complete this registration form.
The deadline for registering is Monday 11th February 2013.

Beginners 1-Day Course

Date: Tuesday 12th March 2013

Location: Boortmalt Board Room, Bury St Edmunds

Trainer: Mr Bob Jarman, Cambridge Botanics Ltd

Cost:      Members - £125 +VAT    /     Non-members - £155 +VAT    (price includes lunch & refreshments)
(an invoice will be sent shortly after registration forms have been received)

A one-day practical training course for member firms of the MAGB and AIC. Full instruction will be given to those with little or no experience. We will examine the physical characteristics used to identify barley varieties from their grains. This is a practical course designed to enable delegates to identify most varieties in all work situations e.g. intake, grain storage, point-of-sale, on the farm and in the field.

 Grain characters will be demonstrated using a range of plant material including barley ears and harvested seed. Course notes will include full descriptive information on all the varieties on the current HGCA Recommended Lists.

A timetable for the day can be viewed here

Refreshers 1-Day Course

Date: Thursday 13th September 2012

Location: Boortmalt Board Room, Bury St Edmunds

Trainer: Mr Bob Jarman, Cambridge Botanics Ltd

Cost:     Members - £125 +VAT / Non-members - £155 +VAT    (price includes lunch & refreshments)
(an invoice will be sent shortly after registration forms have been received)

This is a one-day refresher training course for member firms of the MAGB and AIC who have attended previous courses or have some experience of crop inspecting, for example. We will examine the physical characteristics used to identify barley varieties from their grains and look at the  most recent varieties on the HGCA Recommended Lists. This is a practical course designed to enable delegates to identify most varieties in all work situations e.g. intake, grain storage, point-of-sale, on the farm and in the field.

Grain characters will be demonstrated using a range of plant material including barley ears and harvested seed. Course notes will include full descriptive information on all the varieties on the current HGCA Recommended Lists.

A timetable for the day can be viewed here

 
EQUIPMENT    

Bringing the right equipment on the day is essential: Delegates will need the following:

Essential: A x10 or x20 hand lens (x20 is preferable) available from most good optical/camera shops. Hand Lenses can also be ordered over the internet from the Natural History Bookstore (www.nhbs, search under Hand Lenses). The Opticron 18mm x20 lens costs about £20.00. The aim of the course is to teach the characters using x10 to x20 magnification. Handlenses will be available to borrow on the day. 

Essential: A Stanley type disposable blade/scalpel – available from any DIY store (some will be available on the day) or a pair of very fine pointed forceps/tweezers.

Useful: a digital microscope with built in LED lights that fits a lap-top’s USB port. These can give a magnification of 10-200x and can take digital still photos. They are available through NIKKAI computers and sold at Mapplin shops. They cost £40-60. 

 
Other useful equipment:
  • a mounted “Borrowdale” needle
 
Binocular microscopes and a digital microscope will be available on the course for detailed teaching and examination of specimens and characters. Delegates are welcome to bring their own portable microscopes. Compact sporting or opera type binoculars can be used effectively as a hand lens by looking “close-up” through the objective lens not the eyepiece (i.e. the wrong way round!).
 
 
Pre-Course Preparation
No pre-course preparation is needed. However, 10 minutes looking up the structure of the flowering parts of grasses on the internet or browsing through the introduction to a plant identification field guide would be very useful.