Barley crop is grown by most farmers in Morocco. Its main use if for animal feeding as grain, straw or grazed as forage early in the season. Thirteen varieties have been released since 1976 on the basis of their grain yield advantage over the landraces. No work has been carried out to asses their straw production and quality although these attributes are major constraints to a larger adoption of the new varieties by farmers. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the straw quality of available varieties. Nine barley varieties: ACSAD 60, Aglou, Azilal (two-rows), the landraces: Merzaga 077, Rabat 071, and the new six-row varieties: Arig 8, Annoceur, ACSAD 176 and INRA 1758, were evaluated in this study. The agronomic trial was conducted in 1995 at Sidi El Aydi experiment station. The collected straw samples were analysed for their concentration in nitrogen (N) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF). They were also used to study the dry matter (DM) and N degradability in the rumen. They were further used to evaluate the palatability of the different straws for sheep. Preliminary results have shown significant differences among barley varieties for their straw chemical composition, DM and N degradability in the rumen, and palatability for sheep. These criteria could be strong arguments to include straw quality as a selection criterium in the cereal breeding program.