At the 9th annual meeting of the National Association of Plant Breeders that began yesterday in Pine Mountain, Georgia, Marc Zienkiewicz sat down with Borlaug Scholar Daniel Sweeney to talk about his love of barley breeding, his affinity for craft beer and how his research could one day make barley farmers’ lives easier. We also talk a bit about Canadian barley and why brewers love it.
Sweeney is a PhD candidate studying with Mark Sorrells at Cornell University. His research is focused on genomics-assisted breeding of two-row spring malting barley for the craft brewing industry in New York state. He is particularly interested in application of genomic selection to reduce breeding cycle time and the relationship between barley malting quality, pre-harvest sprouting resistance and grain dormancy.
