I. Workgroup Purpose, Structure and Activity
II. Workgroup Membership, January 2007

I. WORKGROUP PURPOSE, STRUCTURE AND ACTIVITY

Chair/Convener: Lee Jackson, Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616-8780. Phone: (530) 752-0701. Email: lfjackson@ucdavis.edu

Program Area Affiliations: Ag Productivity, Ag Policy and Pest Management

The Small Grain Workgroup has been active since the early 1980’s.  It is a multidisciplinary workgroup whose membership includes Cooperative Extension Farm Advisors, Cooperative Extension Specialists, and UC Research Faculty from various departments on the UC campuses who have research programs or interest in some aspect of small grain (primarily wheat and barley, but also oat and triticale) production and/or utilization.  Faculty from the Departments of Plant Science, Plant Pathology, Entomology, LAWR, Botany, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Engineering, Animal Science, Food Science and Nutrition, and UCR Plant Sciences are, or have been, represented. Membership also includes USDA scientists attached to Campus departments or located in Albany, CA at the USDA Western Regional Research Center. The Director and staff of the California Wheat Commission and staff of the California Crop Improvement Association also participate.

Each year the Workgroup as a whole conducts two main activities, an annual Small Grain Workgroup Meeting and an annual Small Grain Field Day. Topics and issues relevant to small grain cereals in California are presented and discussed. These Workgroup activities also serve as a primary method for communication among small grain research and extension programs. Communication among small grain workers also is accomplished though email, and informally by member-to-member contact. The Workgroup’s intent is to better address important issues in small grain production and utilization throughout the state through coordinated research programs and extension activities.

The annual Small Grain Workgroup Meeting is held in the fall. This timing allows review and reporting of the current season’s research and extension activities and planning for research and extension for the coming season. The Meeting is held at UC Davis, the most central location. The main purpose of the Meeting is to plan for coordination of efforts in research and extension in issues identified by Workgroup members as important to small grain production and utilization in California. These issues include some of the Division’s highest program priorities in Agricultural Resources – Productivity and Efficiency of Agriculture and Pest and Disease Management. The Meeting also functions to facilitate communication among Workgroup members. In-service training for advisors is an integral part of the Meeting and focuses on Workgroup-identified high priority areas. The Meeting facilitates the planning of Workgroup-identified high priority publications.

The annual Small Grain Field Day is held at the UC Davis Agronomy Farm in early-mid May. This timing allows observation of field research projects when traits of interest are fully expressed. The main purpose of the Field Day is to highlight advances in field research efforts on small grains being conducted by University of California researchers and extension workers at UC Davis and other campuses. It also serves as in-service training for farm advisors on a wide range of topics affecting small grain production. The Field Day provides Workgroup members with the opportunity to exchange ideas and communicate with fellow Workgroup members as well as with key small grain industry members (seedsmen, plant breeders, grain dealers, millers and bakers, etc.).

Workgroup research and extension activities from 1990-2006 have been comprehensive and have addressed many key priority issues of the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, particularly with regard to germplasm development, improvement of grain quality, marketability and yield, and protection from diseases and pests.  Small grain researchers and extension workers recognize the importance of integrating the use of disease resistant cultivars into small grain management systems and developing resistance to pests (recent examples are programs for stripe rust and Septoria tritici leaf blotch resistance in wheat; stripe rust, scald, and net blotch resistance in barley; and Russian wheat aphid resistance in wheat and barley). We also have a strong program for monitoring pest and pathogen populations based on early warnings provided by infections and disease and pest incidences and severities in the network of statewide testing sites for small grains in California. A large portion of the Workgroup membership participates in the statewide small grain germplasm development and evaluation project that determines the production potential, adaptability, and quality characteristics of cereal grains and provides the data needed for justifying the release of newly developed germplasm as cultivars.

Workgroup members have collaborated on key publications, including Integrated Pest Management for Small Grains (1990), UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines: Small Grains (with updates at least bi-annually), and the annual publication Regional Barley, Common and Durum Wheat, Triticale, and Oat Performance Tests in California that is published as a Department of Plant Sciences Agronomy Progress Report and can be accessed from this small grain Web site. The Workgroup recently completed a 14-part on-line Small Grains Production Manual that also can be accessed from this Web site.

The following are examples of topics addressed by the Workgroup (through research, presentations and discussions) over the past years and illustrate the comprehensive approach and multidisciplinary nature of the Workgroup:

• Anthesis–applied nitrogen for improved grain protein and end-use quality of wheat
• BYDV of small grains
• Canarygrass control in wheat
• Cereal forages: stage of cutting vs quality, yield
• Conservation tillage
• Date of planting effects on durum and common wheat in the southern desert
• Drought tolerance
• Durum wheat potential and problems for the San Joaquin Valley
• Durum wheat production under reduced irrigation
• Early season nitrogen fertility management in wheat and barley
• Fungicides for disease control
• GMO’s: status in small grains vs public acceptance
• Grain aphids and control measures
• Hard white wheat: Production and market potential
• Herbicide tolerance of small grains
• Karnal bunt biology, current situation (1996-98) and future implications
• Malting and brewing barley
• Marker assisted selection for disease resistance in California wheat
• Multiple use triticale
• Nutrient deficiencies, toxicities of small grains
• Oat performance: Grain and/or forage
• Organic soft white wheat
• Planting date, seeding rate and depths, and pre-plant fertilization
• Population dynamics and management of aphids affecting cereal grains
• Programs of Foundation Seed and Certification Services
• Research, production and marketing efforts of the California Wheat Commission
• Root biomass and water-use efficiency
• Root biomass and nitrogen-use efficiency
• Russian wheat aphid
• Seed treatment fungicides for wheat and barley
• Septoria tritici leaf blotch epidemics and cultivar reactions
• Site-specific farming
• Small grain germplasm evaluation
• Stripe rust of wheat and barley: cultivar resistance/susceptibility and race changes
• Triticale utilization and potential markets
• Wheat, barley, oat, and triticale breeding and genetics
• Wheat quality and collaborative end-use evaluation
• Wheat cultivar mixtures for milling and baking quality and agronomic performance
• Wheat falling number vs sprout damage