- Author: Mark E Lundy
Please join us for upcoming field events hosted by University of California Cooperative Extension:
Nutrient Management Alternatives in Small Grains: Research Updates
4/18/2023 from 8:40 to 10:30
On-farm in Solano County
Click here for details and to register
UC Small Grains and Alfalfa/Forages Field Day
- Author: Mark E Lundy
The 2022-23 cropping season got off to a wet start throughout most of California. Across the main small grain growing regions of the state, rainfall is 158% of average to date (Figure 1), with 164% and 197% of average in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, respectively.
Much of this rain came in high volumes over short periods. See for example the seasonal rainfall accumulation for a field in the Yolo County area compared to the historical (Figure 2).
- Author: Taylor Nelsen
- Author: Gabriel Rosa
- Author: Justin Merz
- Author: Mark E Lundy
The growth stage of a crop is a critical piece of information for growers and agronomists. For small grain crops like wheat and triticale, many field management decisions are sensitive to the stage of crop development. These include irrigation, fertilizer additions, herbicide and pesticide applications, and harvest timing. In addition, the planting date, the amount and timing of rainfall and/or irrigation, and cumulative seasonal temperatures all impact how rapidly a crop emerges, develops and matures. Because of the extreme variability in winter weather in the state, rates of development for small grain crops in California are not always consistent from year-to-year and farm-to-farm. This can make precision management and planning more...
- Author: Richard Smith
- Author: Eric Brennan
- Author: Mark E Lundy
Cereal rye, triticale and oats are commonly used as cover crops in the Salinas Valley in fall grown (Aug/Sept to Oct/Nov) and overwintered (Oct/Nov to Feb/March) planting slots. A key issue for growers is when to terminate the cover crop. This boils down to availability of equipment or breaks in the weather. Those types of issues are unavoidable and usually take precedence in decision making. In this article, we describe the various stages of cover crop seed development so that growers can let their cereal cover crop grow as long as possible without the risk of it producing seed that would become a weed in subsequent vegetable crops. This will allow the carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio to increase as high as possible to maximize the input...
- Author: Micah Levinson
- Author: Taylor Nelsen
- Author: Joshua Hegarty
- Author: Santiago Tamagno
- View More...
Results for the 2021-2022 fall-planted UC Small Grain Variety Trials are now available at:
http://smallgrains.ucanr.edu/Variety_Selection/
Due to changing trends in California small grain production, there is a growing need for information on variety-specific forage biomass productivity. As a result, during the 2021-22 season, we measured forage yields for wheat, triticale, barley and oats at two of our trial locations, in addition to our continuing grain assessments. Both boot-stage and soft-dough stage forage yields were measured, and the resulting summaries are included in the 2022 results under the 'Fall Planted Forage Yield'...