Due to the health concerns surrounding COVID-19, we had to cancel our annual field day that typically occurs in May at UC Davis. While there is no full replacement for seeing field trials in person, the UC small grains research and extension team has been hard at work developing extension resources that we can share digitally. Please take a moment to visit our 2020 Virtual Small Grains Field Day:

http://smallgrains.ucanr.edu/Field_Days/2020_Virtual_Field_Day/

Winter grains like wheat and triticale are incredibly attractive to nesting ducks. Winter grains are seeded in the fall and grow throughout the winter; by nesting season, a dense stand of winter grains near a planted rice field looks like a great nesting location with brood-rearing habitat just a waddle away. Several studies have found ducks may favor winter planted grains over natural uplands when they're available, and winter grains in rice country can produce far higher mallard nest densities and nest survival than anything in the Prairie Pothole Region.

Unfortunately, some winter grains like wheat have been declining along with its poor market price, and the Sacramento Valley's once robust mallard population is declining...

If growers sprayed for Italian ryegrass earlier this year, it might still be worth keeping an eye out for it in fields and field margins.

Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) is an annual grass that can sometimes behave as a biennial or short-lived perennial in California. The species is an upright grass (to about 3 feet in height) that germinates in the late fall and grows vigorously through the winter and early spring. The species can be identified by its dark green, glossy and hairless leaves that are rolled in the bud. Auricles are well-developed and the ligules are long and membranous. Once flowering occurs, ryegrass is easily distinguishable by alternating spikelets that run along the length of the main...