Contents » February 1996
 

February 28, 1996

PROPOSALS WERE HOPPING AT BARLEY RESEARCH REVIEW

MOSCOW, Idaho—Bringing Northwest barley policy makers together to discuss research needs was just one thing reaped at the Tri-State Barley Commissions’ Research Review meeting.

Scientists from Oregon, Washington and Idaho presented a number of research proposals, which included aims to strengthen barley’s performance as well as develop new markets for the crop.

Food scientist Larry Branen from the University of Idaho discussed his work to develop plastic substitutes using a starch made from barley. He requested funding to develop a method for isolating starch and other polysaccharides in barley and to look for additional non-food uses for them. Such non-food uses will help widen the crop’s markets.

Another proposal came from Bill Sanchez of the UI, who will test Steptoe, Baronesse and Idagold barley varieties this summer to determine their effect on lactation in dairy cattle. His proposal for a two-year study to test the findings should produce conclusive comments on the effect of barley feed on dairy lactation. Sanchez and other UI researchers began the projects after Carl Hunt of the UI noted the improved digestibility particular barley varieties produced in beef cattle.

Sanchez submitted his proposal to the Washington Barley Commissions and the Washington Dairy Federation for funding and should find out whether those organizations will support his research in about a month.

The commissioners from the tri-state region of Idaho, Washington and Oregon met after the presentations to discuss possible funding collaboration and each state’s commission will meet separately to determine their financial commitments.

February 27, 1996

JOINTED GOATGRASS CAN PUT CRIMP IN WHEAT PRODUCTION

By Marlene Fritz, Communications Specialist

BOISE, Idaho—Several years ago, University of Idaho extension educator Ivan Hopkins was called to a concerned grower's wheat field. Although the Cassia County field normally yielded 37 bushels per acre, the grower had harvested only 17.

"I picked up a handful of residue straw and it was 98 percent jointed goatgrass," says Hopkins. "It's kind of a silent killer. It sneaks up on us."

This month, Idaho wheat growers are attending conferences in Lewiston and Pocatello coordinated by the National Jointed Goatgrass Research Initiative. Brian Jenks, the project's Nebraska-based extension coordinator, says the weed now infests 7.5 million acres of winter wheat cropland in the United States and costs farmers nationwide about $145 million annually.

It is so similar to wheat that it can cross with it. Herbicides can easily destroy jointed goatgrass, but not without damaging the crop.

Unfortunately for dryland grain growers in Western states, jointed goatgrass thrives especially well in winter wheat-summer fallow rotations. It flourishes alongside the wheat, then sheds its seed into the field.

Growers who unknowingly harvest jointed goatgrass along with their wheat are docked at the elevator. If they plant their own wheat seed back the next year, they may inadvertently plant goatgrass seed right along with it.

For certified wheat seed producers, the potential consequences are even stiffer: the Idaho Crop Improvement Association rejects infested lots entirely. And, if the field itself—rather than trucks, augers or cleaning equipment—is the source of the jointed goatgrass seed, then the ICIA prohibits production of certified seed until the grower successfully completes a reclamation program on the infested field.

Rejected lots aren't common in Idaho, says Greg Lowry, the ICIA's executive vice president. But the certifying agency's stance on jointed goatgrass is firm because "it's one of those weeds that can cross-pollinate with the wheat itself, it reduces yields to such an extent and it's very difficult—if not impossible—to clean out of the seed."

"For wheat seed growers, it's disastrous," says Don Morishita, University of Idaho extension weed specialist in Twin Falls.

For commercial growers, experts estimate that five jointed goatgrass plants per square foot can reduce dryland wheat yields by 25 percent—and losses of 50 percent are not uncommon. In Twin Falls, wheat receiving adequate moisture fared better against jointed goatgrass. Morishita says infestations as dense as 25 weeds per square foot were needed to cut yields by a third.

Despite its potential, Morishita says few commercial wheat growers in Idaho have yet to take big hits from jointed goatgrass because it tends to pop it up in small—but growing—patches. "But if you talk to growers who discovered it five years ago, they would tell you that it's having an economic impact on their grain production."

Curtis Munk, Power County weed supervisor, discovered patches in his Rockland-area winter wheat field three years ago. He switched to two crops of spring wheat, planted back to back, before returning to winter wheat this year. "I'm hoping that's pretty well cleaned it up," he says.

Because jointed goatgrass is a winter annual, waiting until spring to plant wheat prevents it from hiding among winter grains. Exposed, it can be readily treated with herbicides or dug out.

But because spring dryland wheat typically yields 25 to 30 percent less than winter wheat, Power County extension educator Stan Gortsema says growers are reluctant to switch crops.

In Moscow, University of Idaho wheat breeder Bob Zemetra is evaluating a different tack: eventually, he hopes to develop wheat that's resistant to at least one herbicide that kills jointed goatgrass. First, however, he wants to make sure that a transgenic wheat would be unable to transfer its herbicide protection back to goatgrass.

In field and greenhouse tests he has conducted so far, Zemetra says the odds look slim of the two plants transferring herbicide resistance between them. However, he says, scientists might be able to drive those chances to none if they could install resistance genes on sections of wheat's genetic coding that it does not share with jointed goatgrass.