CALIFORNIA
California Report
L.F. Jackson and L.W. Gallagher
Department of Plant Sciences
University of California, Davis
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 and/or malting 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 110,000 acres in 2004.
Barley stripe rust remains the most important disease. Barley stripe rust occurred relatively late in 2004, but increased to high severity by the end of the season on susceptible cultivars such as Max, Legacy, and Tradition. Eleven races of the stripe rust fungus were detected in California in 2004, including 3 new races. One of the new races contains virulence factors against all of the differential varieties used in race identification. Our current main cultivars for the Central Valley, UC 937 and UC 933, however, continue to be resistant.
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 main goal of the University of California barley breeding program has shifted from six-rowed feed barley to malting barley germplasm development as the acreage of feed barley has undergone a sustained decline. Feed barley segregating material remains in the pipeline and the primary goal is the incorporation of resistance to cereal yellows virus transmitted by the aphid Rhopalosiphum padi. For six-rowed types both “Bella Union” and Egypt4/Teran78/ /P.Sto/3/Quina from the ICARDA/CIMMYT breeding program are being used as parents. For two-rowed barley “Madre Selva” also from Mexico is being used. The feed barley UC 1047 performed very nicely in on-farm trials and was superior to both UC 933 and UC 937 for grain yield. Two naked or hulless barleys have performed well. UC 1134 had a high grain yield in the Central Valley while the sib UC 1135 performed well in the Klamath Basin. The hooded forage line Tango/Sara from the Oregon State University program will be placed into regional tests in November.
Evaluations for the University of California Cooperative Extension statewide testing program were conducted in the intermountain valleys of northern California, the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, and in the south central coastal region in 2004. 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.
Intermountain winter barley. The fall-sown winter barley test contained 10 entries (7 cultivars and 3 advanced lines). Both the October-sown and February-sown tests at Tulelake had good stands; the spring check cultivar, Steptoe, survived the winter. Stripe rust was severe on Steptoe and moderately severe on Hoody. There was severe lodging of most entries in the February-sown test. KAB 47 showed good lodging resistance. Yields ranged from 4950-9300 lb/acre (October-sown) and from 2680-7540 lb/acre (February-sown). Eight-Twelve and STAB 113 were the highest yielding entries in the October-sown test while STAB 113 was the highest yielding entry in the February-sown test. Eight-Twelve was the highest yielding in the three-year period 2002-2004.
Fall-sown spring barley. The fall-sown spring barley test contained 29 entries (22 six-row spring feed types, 3 six-row spring malt types, 1 two-row spring feed type, 2 six-row naked spring types, and 1 two-row naked spring type), including 9 cultivars and 20 advanced lines. Stripe rust was most severe at the UC Davis site, particularly on entries Max, Commander, Tradition, 6B98-9339 and APB BB-409. It occurred in lesser severity at the Butte, Madera, and Kings sites. Net blotch/spot blotch affected most entries at the Glenn site. Entries that were least affected included UC 933, UCD C135, UCD C140, UCD C147, UCD YP03-8/16, UCD YP03-9/3, and G196M046. Net blotch occurred in lower severity at the Butte, UC Davis and Kings sites. BYDV was moderately severe at the Kings, UC Davis, and Madera sites; Meltan was most affected. Leaf rust was rare, but did occur on Commander at the Kings site and on Patti at the UC Davis site. Lodging was severe at harvest and affected most entries at the Madera and Kings sites. Max, Commander, UC 603, UCD YP03-8/16, UCD YP03-9/16 and UCD YP03-9/2, were least affected (most resistant to lodging). Moderate to severe shatter by harvest occurred at the Butte, Madera, and Glenn sites. Tradition, 6B98-9339, UC 969, and G196M046 were most affected. Average yields ranged from 620 lb/acre at the rainfed San Luis Obispo site to 5750 lb/acre at the UC Davis site. Entries UCD C140, 23IBYT 7, and UCD C147 were highest yielding in the Sacramento Valley; entries UCD YP03-9/16 and UCD YP03-8/16, in the San Joaquin Valley; and entries UCD C122, UCD C140, UC 937 and UC 933, at rainfed sites. In the three-year period 2002-2004, entries UCD PYT99 A-13 and 23 IBYT 7 have been the highest yielding in the Sacramento Valley; entry UCD PYT99 A-13 and UCD PYT01 C6, in the San Joaquin Valley; and UC 937, UC 933, and Meltan, at rainfed sites.
Intermountain spring barley. The intermountain spring barley test contained 43 entries (18 six-row spring feed types, 7 six-row spring malt types, 9 two-row spring feed types, and 9 two-row spring malt types), including 22 cultivars and 21 advanced lines. The test at the Lassen site (near Honey Lake) was abandoned; severe drought stress combined with a very high Russian wheat aphid infestation resulted in crop failure. Stripe rust was severe at the Tulelake site. Steptoe, Creel, Tradition, Legacy, Aquila, and PB1-95-2R-522 were most affected. Average yields ranged from 5320 lb/acre at the Siskiyou site to 6630 lb/acre at the Tulelake site. Overall, UCD-TL20, Creel, and UCD-TLB52 were highest yielding in 2004. In the period 2002-2004, Creel, Millenium, UCD-TL163, and UCD-TL20 were highest yielding region-wide; Xena, in Siskiyou Co; and Creel, Millenium, UCD-TL163, and UCD-TL20, at Tulelake. The 2003 Western Regional Spring Barley Test (33 entries), sown in the fall, 2003, at UC Davis, had severe stripe rust by soft dough stage. Entries 14 (95SR316A), 24 (Samish 23), 28 (Bob), and 30 (WA7194-98) were most resistant. Two entries (Samish 23 and WA8601-97) had moderate net blotch severity. Yields ranged from 1190-5400 lb/acre. The highest yielding entry was Entry 25 (UT95B1216-4087). The 2004 Western Regional Spring Barley Test (36 entries), sown in the spring, 2004 at Tulelake, had low to moderate stripe rust at headed to early dough stage (severe on Steptoe), trace BYD and low to moderate bacterial streak. Entries 1 (Steptoe), 3, 10, 14, 23, 24, 27, 28, and 35 had severe stripe rust at the soft to hard dough stage. Yields ranged from 2820-7340 lb/acre. The highest yielding entries were Entry 28 (UT00B1718-773) and Entry 1 (Steptoe).
About 2000 barley lines (primarily assembled by USDA-ARS, Aberdeen) were screened for resistance to barley stripe rust (BSR) in 2004. Germplasm included 1000 lines from the NSGC (representing 48 countries of origin) and cooperator lines from An Hang (Idaho), Bregitzer (Idaho), Hensleigh (Montana), Hayes (Oregon), Ullrich (Washington), Franckowiak (North Dakota), Steffenson (Minnesota), Clark (Westbred), Carleton (Arizona Plant Breeders), and Pickering (New Zealand). The cultivars Russell and Bancroft were repeated checks throughout the nursery, while spreader rows of the California susceptible check cultivar, Max, also were sown throughout the nursery. Single 8-ft rows of each entry were sown on November 25-26, 2003. Disease severity ratings were made on three separate dates (3/22-23, 4/19-20, and 5/10-11). BSR first appeared (trace amounts) on February 23. Heavy stripe rust pressure was relatively late to develop but disease was very severe by the last observation date. Since many entries in the nursery were nearly mature between the second and third observation dates when stripe rust became severe throughout the nursery, some of the accessions with reaction types of 10S or less may have been escapes (533 of the NSGC accessions). At the time of the final BSR severity rating (May 10-11), 15% of the NSGC accessions had a >60-100S reaction. About 50% of the NSGC accessions (including a high number of lines from Ethiopia, India, and Nepal) remained BSR-free. Of the cooperator lines, 36% had a >60-100S reaction while 22% remained BSR-free, including a high proportion of lines from Pat Hayes’ program. Scald was severe on the first observation date; lines that had severe or moderately severe scald infections were noted. BYD, net blotch, and/or leaf rust were severe on various lines so were noted for entries if those diseases occurred in moderate (or greater) severity. Among the NSGC accessions, Sixty-one accessions had severe BYD (71 accessions, moderately severe BYD); 32 accessions had severe leaf rust (3 accessions, moderately severe leaf rust); 2 accessions had severe net blotch (5 accessions, moderately severe net blotch); and 2 accessions had severe scald (34 accessions, moderately severe scald).