ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Agron.
Sec. Agroecological Cropping Systems
Impacts of early drought stress and plant-based biologicals on malting and feed barley quality
Veronic Töpfer 1
Andrea Matros 1
Anne Zaar 2
Susanne E. Hamburger 3
Annegret Schmitt 3
Ada Linkies 3
Rod J. Snowdon 4
Andreas Stahl 1
Gwendolin Wehner 1
1. Julius Kuhn-Institut Bundesforschungsinstitut fur Kulturpflanzen, Quedlinburg, Germany
2. Julius Kuehn Institute - Institute for Breeding Research on Agricultural Crops, Groß Lüsewitz, Germany
3. Julius Kuehn-Institute-Institute for Biological Control, Dossenheim, Germany
4. Department of Plant Breeding, Justus-Liebig-Universitat Giessen, Giessen, Germany
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract
Extreme weather events associated with climate change, including prolonged drought periods, are becoming increasingly frequent. For many years, pesticides and mineral fertilizers have contributed to stable crop yields; however, their use is expected to be further restricted due to their negative environmental impacts. Therefore, biological products are considered as environmentally friendly alternatives. This study aimed to investigate the effects of early drought stress on grain quality in spring malting and feed barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), as well as to examine how biologicals - specifically Cropcover and Giant knotweed - affect these quality traits. Four malting and four feed barley genotypes were evaluated under field conditions at two locations over three consecutive years. All genotypes were tested with and without application of biologicals. Drought stress was imposed from BBCH 13 for six weeks. Mature plants were harvested, and grains were analyzed for grain size, C/N ratio, crude protein content, and starch content. Early drought stress significantly (p < 0.05) increased crude protein content in year 2021 and 2022 exceeding the acceptable level of 12% for malting barley, while reducing grain size and C/N ratio, without affecting starch content. Application of Giant knotweed further significantly (p < 0.05) increased crude protein content and decreased the C/N ratio in both malting and feed barley. These results highlight the pronounced effects of early drought stress and biologicals on barley grain quality, with feed barley quality showing clear benefit.
Summary
Keywords
barley, biologicals, biostimulants, Drought stress, Hordeum vulgare L., Quality traits
Received
13 January 2026
Accepted
20 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Töpfer, Matros, Zaar, Hamburger, Schmitt, Linkies, Snowdon, Stahl and Wehner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Veronic Töpfer
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.