Montana State University professor Mike Walach flies a drone for a demonstration on Feb. 24, 2023.

Rachel Leathe/Chronicle

Jamie Sherman spends her summers walking barley fields.

She’s the director of the barley breeding program at Montana State University, and she walks the lengthy rows of MSU research farms, looking for the best performing plants. 

Those that are too tall and falling over don’t make the cut. Neither do any infested with disease, or that seed at the wrong time. The breeding program — which analyzes some 50,000 barley …