Barley production

Barley production in California consists primarily of fall-sown 6-row spring feed barley. Most of the acreage is concentrated in the Central (Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys) Valley and surrounding foothills and in the south-central coastal valley foothills. Barley is grown as an irrigated rotation crop in the Central Valley and as a rainfed crop in the Central Valley foothills and south-central coastal foothills. A substantial acreage of spring-sown feed (6-row) or malting (2-row, primarily) barley also is grown under irrigation in the Tulelake basin in the northeastern portion of California and serves as a rotation crop for potato. Statewide, barley was grown on 130,000 acres in 2000.

Barley stripe rust was severe on susceptible lines and cultivars in both the Sacramento Valley and the San Joaquin Valley. Resistance of UC 937, the new cultivar for fall sowing in the Central Valley, held up well. Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) occurred in high incidence in the 2000 season. One barley test site in the San Joaquin Valley (Madera) showed excellent contrasting symptoms between highly susceptible and resistant lines.

Germplasm development and evaluation

The germplasm development program in California includes breeding and selection by public and private plant breeders and coordinated statewide testing of promising advanced lines from both types of programs. The objectives of the University of California barley breeding program are to (1) conduct a barley improvement program using traditional breeding methodologies with the overall goal to develop and introduce cultivars of barley with good agronomic performance and end-use properties for California farmers, and (2) maintain and develop germplasm required to sustain barley production statewide.

Two new cultivars from the UC breeding program were approved for certification: UC 933 and UC 969. UC 933 (Sma1/Sunbar 401/3/Gus/Kombyne/Sma1) was evaluated as entry 933 (UCD 92-10,585) in the UC Regional Evaluation Tests, 1995-99. Sma1 has the parentage Steptoe/2*Diamant/3/Minn Dwarf 64.98-8/Briggs/4/Asse. UC 933 is six-rowed, fully awned, short-statured (averages 34 in; is a semidwarf and has the same sdw gene as UC 937), with spring growth habit and mid-late season maturity. Seeds are beige (non-blue aleurone). UC 933 is moderately resistant to BYDV, stripe rust, leaf rust, scald, and net blotch. UC 933 is intended for all areas of California where spring barley is sown in the late fall to early winter (November - January) for use as animal feed. UC 933 will provide growers in the Sacramento Valley with a higher yielding alternative to all other available cultivars.

UC 969 (Sma1/Sunbar 401/3/UC 337) was evaluated as entry 969 (UCD 95-2,407) in the UC Regional Evaluation Tests, 1997-2000. Sma1 has the parentage Steptoe/2*Diamant/3/Minn Dwarf 64.98-8/Briggs/4/Asse. UC 969 is six-rowed, fully awned, intermediate in stature (averages 35.4 in), with spring growth habit and early season maturity. Seeds are beige (non-blue aleurone). UC 969 is moderately resistant to BYDV, leaf rust, scald, and net blotch. UC 969 is moderately susceptible to existing races of stripe rust, but crop loss is avoided because of the earliness of UC 969. UC 969 is intended for marginal areas of California, primarily those environments having low soil moisture where spring barley is sown in the late fall to early winter (November - January) for use as animal feed. UC 969 will provide growers in the San Joaquin Valley and surrounding foothills with an earlier maturing and higher yielding alternative to UC 603. UC 969 also should perform well in soil moisture-limited areas (surrounding foothills) of the Sacramento Valley.

Evaluations for the University of California Cooperative Extension statewide testing program were conducted in the intermountain valleys of northeastern California, the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, and in the south central coastal region in 2000. Entries in the tests included standard cultivars, new and soon-to-be released cultivars, and advanced breeding lines from both public and private breeding programs. Winter barley (8 entries) was evaluated at one location; fall-sown spring barley (23 entries), at 6 locations; and spring-sown spring barley (28 entries), at two locations. The Western regional spring barley nursery (28 entries) and a stripe rust screening test of 130 early generation materials from Pat Hayes' Oregon State University barley breeding program were evaluated at the UC Intermountain Research and Extension Center at Tulelake.

Intermountain winter barley. The intermountain winter barley test contained 8 entries, including one spring barley, Steptoe. Steptoe survived the winter but showed frost damage to spikes. Grain yields were high, ranging from 5160 to 7240 lb/acre. Lodging was severe at harvest for all entries except Steptoe. Stripe rust was severe on Steptoe. The stripe rust resistant cultivar Kold was the highest yielding. Kold and Strider were the highest yielding in the three-year period 1998-2000.

Fall-sown spring barley. The fall-sown spring barley test contained 23 entries, including 8 cultivars and 15 advanced lines. UC 476 and UC 603 were damaged by Hoelon herbicide at the Butte site. Stripe rust was severe on several entries (Arivat, UC 476, Nebula, APB A-27, WWW BA8017, and APB C-2) at one or more of the following sites: UC Davis, Madera, Kings, and San Luis Obispo. BYDV was severe on several entries (Arivat, Meltan, UCD 97-4286, and UCD PYT99 D-9) at the Butte, UC Davis, and/or Madera sites. Average yields ranged from 4120 lb/acre at the rainfed San Luis Obispo site to 6000 lb/acre at the Butte site. Entries UCD PYT99 C-3 and UCD PYT99 A-13 were highest yielding in the Sacramento Valley; entries APB A-20, UCD PYT99 A-19, and APB A-7, in the San Joaquin Valley; and entries UCD 97-4286 and UC 933, in rainfed sites. In the three-year period 1998-2000, entries APB A-20 and UC 933 were the highest yielding in the Sacramento Valley; entries APB A-20 and UC 937, in the San Joaquin Valley; and entry UC 933, in rainfed sites.

Intermountain spring barley. The intermountain spring barley test contained 28 entries, including 16 cultivars and 12 advanced lines. Drought stress occurred periodically during the season at the Siskiyou site. Moderate levels of stripe rust occurred at the Tulelake site (where Steptoe was the only entry to show high stripe rust severity). Average yields ranged from 3580 lb/acre at the Siskiyou site to 7320 lb/acre at the Tulelake site. Entries Brigham and Steptoe were highest yielding at the Siskiyou site while entries DA 587-124, Brigham, and Statehood were highest yielding at the Tulelake site. In the three-year period 1998-2000, Statehood, Millennium, and Brigham were highest yielding at Tulelake while entries Statehood, Brigham, and Xena were highest yielding region-wide. The Western Regional Spring Barley nursery (36 entries) was evaluated at the UC Intermountain Research and Extension Center at Tulelake. Stripe rust pressure was moderate to severe. Many entries showed low severity. Yields ranged from 5340 to 8880 lb/acre. The highest yielding entries included advanced lines from Western Plant Breeders (DA 587-124), Utah (UT004467, UT003757), Idaho (ID93Ab688), and Oregon (OR2967102).

Preliminary Intermountain tests - barley. Early generation material from Pat Hayes' Oregon State University barley breeding program, a program that has the greatest potential of any in the West for developing new barley cultivars with adequate yield potential and disease (stripe rust) resistance for the Tulelake/Klamath basin, was grown at Tulelake. A single rep test of 130 entries (including checks) was evaluated; stripe rust severity was low for all but a few entries. Yields ranged from 3580 - 8750 lb/acre.

Cereal rust disease survey, disease screening

Barley stripe rust was severe on susceptible lines and cultivars in both the Sacramento Valley and the San Joaquin Valley. Resistance of UC 937, the new cultivar for fall sowing in the Central Valley, held up well. Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) occurred in high incidence in the 2000 season. One barley test site in the San Joaquin Valley (Madera) showed excellent contrasting symptoms between highly susceptible and resistant lines. Barley stripe rust was evaluated on approximately 3000 lines (primarily assembled by Darrell Wesenberg, USDA-ARS, Aberdeen from the National Small Grains Collection (NSGC) and public and private breeders; additional lines were received directly from breeders) at UC Davis. Germplasm included cooperator lines from Hayes, Hensleigh, Clark, Wesenberg, Hang, McProud, Treat, Albrechtsen, Francowiak, Ullrich, Carleton, Sunderman, and Matchett, and 1500 lines from the NSGC. Barley stripe rust was first detected in mid March. Some very susceptible lines showed a 100S reaction with 100% incidence from natural infection by late March, while many other lines were BSR-free. By late April (the time of the first disease severity rating) about 10% of the entries showed a 100S reaction, while many other lines were still BSR-free. At the final disease severity evaluation (conducted from 5/9 - 5/12) about 50% of the lines had highly susceptible (50S - 100S) reactions, including 33% that were 100S. About 33% of the lines had a low reaction type (0 to 10S), indicating useable resistance. Rust collections submitted to USDA from California in 2000 included 38 collections of wheat stripe rust, 15 collections of wheat leaf rust, and 14 collections of barley stripe rust. Estimates of statewide losses due to rust diseases were 10% for wheat stripe rust, 2% for wheat leaf rust, and 5% for barley stripe rust.