BARCODING SOFTWARE INTO THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BARLEY ... biochemical analysis of malt needed. During the 2000 ... This data is manipulated with.
THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF DATA ACQUISITION AND BARCODING SOFTWARE INTO THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BARLEY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM S. R. Szarvas1, S. Peacock2 and S. Roumeliotis1 1
The University of Adelaide, School of Agriculture and Wine, Waite Campus PMB1, Glen Osmond, SA 5064 2 Tracking, Labels and Consulting Pty. Ltd., PO Box 4103, SA 5023
INTRODUCTION The South Australian Barley Improvement Program (SABIP) aims to develop and release improved malting barley varieties. To help assess the suitability of new lines for the malting and brewing industries the Waite Barley Quality Evaluation Laboratory operates two Automatic Micromalting Systems (Phoenix Biosystems®, Adelaide, S.A.). A large number of early, intermediate and late generation lines are micromalted annually and subsequently analysed using Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy and various laboratory methods. Micromalting and sample management requires the tracking and recording of physical grain and malt characteristics as well as sample throughput. This involves careful and meticulous recording of data, which is both time consuming and tedious. Despite some early developments involving barcoding within field operations, sample management was still below capability, with no such system in place for the Barley Quality Laboratory. Further advances were required in the area of hand-held scanners for post-harvest work and a barcoding data acquisition system for micromalting and subsequent biochemical analysis of malt needed. During the 2000 season alone, 4453 samples were micromalted and analysed with a further 7280 early generation lines NIR tested (Logue et. al., 2000). Consequently the enhancement of the current barcoding and data acquisition system was fundamental to the efficient monitoring of a large number of samples. This paper aims to describe the development and implementation of new barcoding technology and associated software. DEVELOPMENTS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS Background During the past 5 years, some progress has been made in the field of data recording within the SABIP. Due to the large number of lines tested, a barcoding system was put in place to effectively record harvested lines, with all data being saved to an Excel format file (Microsoft Windows 2000), this eliminated the need for keyboard entry and handwriting/recording. A unique barcode identification number, which appears on each harvested line, allows the operator to identify the entry by variety, site, plot number and harvest year. This data is manipulated with such field information as yield, screening weights and disease susceptibility added soon after harvest. Barcode recognition of samples in conjunction with NIR Spectroscopy rapidly assesses and monitors early generation material with malting potential, with entries culled should they not meet malt quality specifications. Other improvements include the notification of the operator upon scanning the particular identification barcode, as to its “cull status”. Intermediate and advanced barley variety trials require more detailed and accurate malting data. Samples are assigned laboratory identification numbers and labelled, prior to micromalting and analysis.
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Figure 1. (a) Determining which harvested barley line needs to be micromalted and analysed. (b) Loading samples for micromalting and assessing visual grain quality using a barcode chart. Post-harvest New developments within the SABIP include the introduction of two light weight hand-held Denso BHT6045D Portable Data Collection Units® for use by the field and laboratory teams in post harvest data acquisition. These replace the fixed scanners previously in use and allow greater freedom for operators. This is, in part, due to the display on each unit, which is capable of showing up to 21 x 8 lines of information and is driven by a 16-bit C-MOS microprocessor, effectively negating the need for a computer and monitor to display relevant information. Breeding trial entries can be scanned, with information downloaded to a base computer at the completion of each experiment. The breeder can then cull material that has been assessed for field grain information and subsequently determine which is suitable for malting. This data is then uploaded to the hand-held collection units thus allowing the laboratory operator to scan and determine which particular line needs to be taken for micromalting and further analyses without having to transport it to a fixed scanner and computer. (Figure 1a).
Figure 2. Screen capture of database at time of loading micromalting samples.
Micromalting and grain quality Design and installation of a unique Access (Microsoft Windows 2000) based software package by Tracking, Labels and Consulting Pty. Ltd., now allows recording of all micromalting data, before, during and at the completion of malting (Figure 2). Samples are assigned a barcode label, automatically generated and printed by a Clever TTP243 Thermal Transfer Printer®. This contains all the information regarding identification of the entry and analyses required (Figure 3). Upon loading the sample into the micromalter, the operator uses a hand-held Denso BHT6045D Portable Data Collection Unit® and a visual grain quality scan code sheet to rapidly assess such traits as sprouting, dark tipping and cleaving among others (Figure 1b). The figures stored on the hand-held data collection unit are then downloaded to the aforementioned micromalting data program. This data can then be accessed during the malting process with further editing possible. This is a particularly useful benefit of the feature when adjusting for moisture content over 24, 48 and 72-hour steeping stages. The operator can simply scan the relevant malting canister, weigh it and download this data to the hand-held data collection unit via an interface with the weighing station. Following an upload of these figures to the program, the hand-held data collection unit will be capable of immediately displaying the necessary volume of water to be added to the particular sample. It is also envisaged that another scan code sheet will be created to assess visual malt quality after micromalting. All the downloaded information is stored within an Excel format file (Microsoft Windows 2000) for convenient data manipulation.
Figure 3. Example of sample identification label, with information such as variety and site (a), micromalting and analyses (b) and unique barcode identification number made clearly visible (c). CONCLUSION Progress within the breeding program is dependant upon operators and researchers adopting more sophisticated techniques, which facilitate the acquisition and interpretation of their data. The developments by the SABIP and Tracking, Labels and Consulting Pty. Ltd. are a positive step towards reducing human error and subsequent variation whilst providing a more streamlined and efficient approach to monitoring possible new malting barley varieties. Pre-harvest selection of varieties using a hand-held computer is yet another initiative to be explored. It is envisaged that an operator could access information downloaded from the breeding database, and add any significant data whilst in remote locations. The potential also exists for the current barcoding and data acquisition software to extend into the biochemical laboratory. Further work with the system will allow for necessary modifications to be made so as to offer any additional benefits and culminating in an efficient and accurate integrated data management system.
REFERENCES Logue, S., Tansing, P. and Roumeliotis, S. (2002) S.A Barley Improvement Program. Barley Quality Report 2000 Season. Adelaide, S.A.
