The Utah small grains program focuses on developing improved cultivars of hard winter wheat, winter feed barley, and spring barley. Utah’s climate is semi-arid with hot dry summers that provide challenges for rain-fed production. Much of the spring barley production is irrigated. As population grows and develops along the Wasatch front range, urban use is competing with agriculture for water. This requires that future small grain production systems and cultivars be developed that will utilize less water while still maximizing production.
Resistance to Tilletia controversa (dwarf bunt) in winter wheat is important to small grains producers in Utah and research into identifying new resistance genes in wheat, as well as markers for known genes, is a research priority.
Organic production of small grains is increasing in acreage in Utah, and the small grains team is dedicated to developing cultivars that yield well and that consistently produce high quality grains under these management systems.
For more information see
http://wheat.usu.edu
David Hole
