The small grain plots in Palmer and Fairbanks have been successfully seeded with the help of Alan Tonne, Erin Carr, Kieran Gleason and Sergio, a summer student, according to Mingchu Zhang, professor of agronomy. He notes that the germination in the field plots looks good.
When the plot was prepared in May, a few sandhill cranes were still hanging around, but had moved on by the time the plots were seeded. To be safe, Sergio stayed in the field with the F350 Ford truck in case some birds arrived. Alan and Kieran planned to seed some barley in the far field close to irrigation to attract the birds away from the research plots, a proactive approach to safeguard the research plots.
The major purposes of the research in both Palmer and Fairbanks are 1) to select a spring wheat that can be grown in Alaska; 2) to evaluate feed barley that can be used for malting; 3) to select a canola that can be used as a rotational crop and a sunflower that can be used as an alternative crop in Alaska for uses such as bird seed.
The spring wheat program is a vital part of food security in Alaska. Working with Washington State University's Mount Vernon station, Alaska's Ingal variety was crossed with a Canadian variety to overcome Ingal's shattering issue at maturity while being able to reach maturity in Interior Alaska's short growing season.
To find a six-row feed barley that can also be used as a malting variety, several barley varieties from Sweden and Mount Vernon station were collected with the help of Dr. Steve Jones of WSU's Mount Vernon station. If the selection is successful, Alaska farmers can grow barley to supply the local beer industry.
In addition, canola varieties are being looked at as a rotational crop in Alaska, which will help with soil health.
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