Evaluating Winter Barley Cultivar Using Data Envelopment Analysis Models

Unlike feed barley, malting barley must meet a specific set of quality standards for acceptability by maltsters. Multiple quality criteria in addition to the grain yield makes ranking of genotypes challenging. The objective of this study was to apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) models to rank the efficiencies of 27 winter barley entries based on grain yield and quality indices. Four methods of DEA including Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR), Färe and Grosskopf (FG), Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC), and Seiford and Thrall (ST) used for the ranking. Testing trial included 14 two-rows and 13 six-rows winter barley. All entries except two, demonstrated high winter survival ratings. Overall, the six-row cultivars out-yielded the two-row cultivars by 18%. However, in terms of brewing quality, the two-row entries performed better than six-row entries and had 40% lower thinness, 12% higher plump, and lower grain protein content. The six-row entries had 32% higher germinative energy than two-row entries. The ranking by four models were not similar, however, SU-Mateo and Calypso had the highest efficiency (1.0) by all four models followed by Wintmalt and Vincenta.