CALIFORNIA
Field Crops A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
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Solano County farmer Ian Anderson, in a rye field in the Montezuma Hills, experiments with multiple different grain crops on top of his normal wheat and barley. This year he is trying his luck with canola.
Growers, researchers try out different grain options By Robyn Rominger
Anderson noted that dual-purpose wheat types may match his interest in producing forage wheat as hay for retail feed stores. “It’s a big market,” Anderson said. “If you have awns on your wheat, it doesn’t work into feed stores. It needs to be beardless, and it needs to be high yielding to make a profit.” Anderson cited Hegarty’s research on triticale, which is a cross between wheat and rye. “There are new triticale varieties that Joshua is working on that are increasing yields and increasing quality,” he said. Hegarty, who manages the triticale breeding program with UC Davis professor Jorge Dubcovsky, has been conducting regional trials on triticale varieties. In addition, Charlie Brummer, director of the Plant Breeding Center at UC Davis, is working on studies targeting ways to improve yields for alfalfa. “Alfalfa yields have been flat for the last 30 years or so,” Brummer told growers at the Davis field day. He said researchers are “trying to figure out how to use some of the newer technologies like genomics, high through-put phenotyping, drones and so on, to maybe push yield advancements further than we have.” One of the tools used is a U.S. Department of Agriculture germplasm collection in Washington, D.C. “These come from the nondormant growing areas of the world— North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India, South America—and there’s some really
Solano County farmer and rancher Ian Anderson, who grows wheat and barley for grain and produces malting barley, also experiments with different crops to boost his bottom line. Anderson is the owner of E.A. Anderson and Son Ranch in the Montezuma Hills, a region where small grains are grown without irrigation. Six generations of his family have farmed the land there for more than 100 years. Trying out new crops is part of the tradition, particularly in recent years. This year, Anderson said the farm is “excited to be experimenting with canola as a rota- tion crop.” Canola is an oil-seed crop that shows potential as a source of biofuel, according to the Agronomy Research and Information Center at the University of California, Davis. Anderson’s potential grain interests don’t stop with canola. He supports agricultural researchers conducting studies on new forage wheat varieties that intrigue him. He was among growers who turned out in May to gather insights at the UC Alfalfa, Forages and Small Grains Field Day in Davis. The farmer connected with Joshua Hegarty, a UC Davis postdoctoral agronomy re- searcher. Hegarty said he is studying “awnless, dual-purpose” wheat that can allow growers “to decide whether or not, based on market forces, to harvest it for grain or for forage, yet have the grain quality that is good for the milling industry.”
See GRAINS, Page 8
June 21, 2023 Ag Alert 7
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