Wheat plants weakened by drought are inherently more susceptible to root roots, aphids, brown mites, and wheat streak mosaic virus carried by the curl mite.

As part of a collaborative project with Oregon State University, University of Idaho is seeking cooperators for a study of the Cereal leaf beetle to monitor its abundance and the abundance of parasitoid wasp that was introduced as a biological control agent nearly 20 years ago.

Multicrop systems have potential to reduce erosion, soil carbon loss, nutrient runoff, water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Spring is an incredibly busy time of year for wheat growers.

Herbicide-resistant weeds are among the most costly and serious threats to sustainable wheat production.

Much of the new crop of wheat in the Northern Hemisphere is either dormant or semi-dormant, waiting for its opportunity to evolve and produce.As of mid-February, assessing the prospects for 2023 wheat production has been a little tenuous, but it is hard to find serious problems that cannot be fixed.

The Grain Research and Development Corp. (GRDC) announced a $12.7 million national research project to support the integration of long coleoptile wheat into Australian farming systems. The announcement was made by GRDC Chairman John Woods at the Grains Research Update in Perth, Western Australia’s premier grains industry forum. The coleoptile is the protective sheath that encloses the emerging shoot and first leaves. The longer the coleoptile is, the greater the emergence potential when deep sowing. Long coleoptile wheats can be sown at depths of more than 10 centimeters, making better use of stored soil moisture.

Growing wheat in drought conditions may be easier in the future, thanks to new genetic research out of the University of California, Davis. An international team of scientists found that the right number of copies of a specific group of genes can stimulate longer root growth, enabling wheat plants to pull water from deeper supplies. The resulting plants have more biomass and produce higher grain yield, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

A new semidwarf gene has been identified that will improve early emergence of barley in deep seedings. Genes associated with the Green Revolution often led to shorter stems and shorter coleoptiles, making it more difficult for plants to compete and emerge from dry, deep seedings. The new semidwarf gene has a more moderate reduction in plant height and increase coleoptile length, overcoming these weaknesses. A diagnostic molecular marker will support faster breeding of varieties with the trait. Semdwarf. The research was product of a collaboration between the Western Crop Genetics Alliance, University of Tasmania and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science.

No-till dryland wheat growers in Idaho are becoming increasingly reliant on glyphosphate for pre-plant and post harvest weed control. The repeated use of glyphosphate as the main weed management tool could result in widespread glyphosphate weed populations. To protect the value of glyphosphate in wheat production systems, it is important to identify effective alternate herbicides and mixtures for weed control.

Genome editing is a technology that allows researchers to develop new plant varieties with interesting characteristics, such as disease resistance. However, according to European legislation, these are potentially dangerous GMOs. But is it really so?

CIMMYT scientists have screened a sample of 990 bread wheat landraces using genome-environment associations against seven key climatic variables. The research identified proteins associated with drought and heat tolerance that can be used to improve modern wheat varieties and better adapt to extreme environments.

Genetic resources of crop plants are being held in nearly 2,000 gene banks around the world.

A University of Idaho livestock genetic scientist is part of an initiative that was recently awarded $1.9 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture funds to promote collaboration among plant and animal genomic researchers.

Nitrogen management in semi-arid dryland winter wheat production systems in Southeast Idaho is particularly complicated due to year to year variability in precipitation.

The world population is growing. At the same time, researchers and farmers need to figure out how to adapt agriculture to changing, and sometimes increasingly harsh environmental conditions.

Building the genetic makeup for the ideal wheat crop is no easy task. Just ask Liuling Yan, the Dillon and Lois Hodges professor of wheat molecular genetics and breeding in the Oklahoma State University Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, who recently discovered the TaCol-B5 gene in wheat plants. What makes this gene so special?

Researchers have developed several new varieties of wheat that tolerate soils with higher salt concentrations. After having mutated a wheat variety from Bangladesh, they now have a wheat with seeds that weigh three times more and that germinate almost twice as often as the original variety.

Yield reductions due to Hessian fly infestation of spring and winter wheat can be significant in northern Idaho. However, widespread economic losses in the region have not occurred in recent years due to effective resistance in many of the most widely planted and highest-yielding varieties.

Do fertilizer prices have you considering alternative nutrient sources for your grain production? Do you have a neighboring dairy wanting to incorporate manure into your cropping system?

The University of Idaho Extension has published a new bulletin focusing on management of Take-All Disease of Wheat in Idaho.

University of Idaho Extension barley agronomist Jared Spackman and UI Extension cropping systems agronomist Kurt Schroeder suspect many fields throughout Idaho that have historically been suitable for grain production but have been trending acidic are finally getting too far out of balance.

The Idaho Wheat Commission supports a multi-layered project to study the stripe rust epidemic through a collaboration between the USDA-ARS, Washington State University, and the University of Idaho.

Some of the foods we know and love could be gone from the planet faster than you might think - chocolate might be gone in 40 years and oranges are under threat as well.

Farmer-built, weed-specific sprayers are on the near-horizon for agriculture.

Agoro Carbon Alliance has announced a total payment of $9 million to farmers and ranchers enrolled in the first year of the carbon credit program. This carbon market was launched in June of 2021.

For Idaho growers concerned about increasing levels of herbicide-resistant weed seeds in their fields, harvest weed seed control systems may present a new approach.

Yield reductions due to Hessian fly infestation of spring and winter wheat can be significant in northern Idaho.

According to recently published research led by University of Idaho scientists, grain farmers in the Pacific Northwest should be cognizant of a relative newcomer to the region’s pest scene that seems to thrive with fewer hot days than other aphid species require.

An effort to identify genes in spring wheat that would allow it to be more heat and drought resilient recently earned more than $2 million in funding.

Upon review of all the safety and regulatory information submitted, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has concluded that it has no further questions regarding the safety of HB4® Wheat, and that it does not raise issues that would require premarket review or approval by FDA.

As harvest approaches, you’ve likely become acutely aware of the developmental stage of your wheat crop.

In a study funded by the Idaho Wheat Commission, Drs. Barrie Robison, Mary Ridout, and Leonora Bittleston explored the connections between starch quality and the microbiome -- the microorganisms in a particular environment...

A University of Idaho research team is refining a first-of-its-kind app that will allow grain farmers to instantly identify common pests and beneficial insects inhabiting their fields.

Researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have proposed a new diagram to show how wheat yields are determined.

In this podcast that explores some on-farm cover crop strategies, we are introduced to first generation farmer, Adam Lasch, a no-tiller who started his farming career in 2011.

When consumers “eat wheat”, it is rarely in the kernel form that leaves your farm. There are at least two major steps required before enjoying a wheat product: milling and baking.

Does a soil pH problem have you stumped? Have you wondered how soil pH is affecting the nutrient availability on your own farm?

In a January 2022 bulletin, Drs. Walsh, Jayawardena, Liang, and Torrion published the findings of a 2016 and 2017 study on wheat in Montana and Idaho.

Identifying and cloning a gene from a wheat cultivar resistant to stripe rust could lead to new cultivars that recognize and resist disease ...

A research collaboration has helped to explain the chemical defenses that protect wheat plants against disease ...

Do high fertilizer prices have you considering a split Nitrogen application?

With rapidly increasing prices and increased reliance on glyphosate, it may be time to start looking elsewhere for your preplant burndown herbicide...