Xiaofei Zhang and Joshua Hegarty presented advances in small grains breeding at the 2026 California Grains Conference, held October 13 at UC Davis. 

Graduate student Li Meinhold presented his research on Transformer-based genomic prediction at the 2026 National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB) Annual Meeting, held June 15–18 in College Station, Texas. Li developed a Transformer-based model integrating genotypic and environmental data to predict wheat grain yield, heading date, and plant height. Using two years of field data, the model outperformed conventional genomic prediction methods.

The UC Davis Small Grains Breeding Program recently participated in the 2026 Western Wheat Workers Meeting in Walla Walla, Washington, joining breeders, pathologists, agronomists, industry representatives, and growers from across the western United States. Dr.

At the Bay Area Plant Hub meeting hosted by University of California, Berkeley, Li Mainhold, a PhD student from the Small Grains Crop Breeding Program presented new research on using artificial intelligence to improve crop breeding.

Li Meinhold is developing a prediction model using WheatCAP data from public wheat breeding programs. The model combines genomic data—about 500,000 DNA markers from ~8,400 wheat lines—with 40 environmental variables such as weather and location. 

May 7, 2026 | UC Davis CAES Field Research Facility

On May 7, UC Davis hosted the Small Grains and Alfalfa Field Day, bringing together growers, industry partners, researchers, and students for a morning in the field. The event was supported by the California Crop Improvement Association (CCIA) and the California Wheat Commission (CWC). We are grateful for their continued support.

We work on five crops:

We report new advances in improving resistance to stripe rust, a major disease affecting wheat production. Our study shows that combining adult-plant resistance genes, including Yr78 and Yr36, significantly enhances disease protection across diverse wheat backgrounds under field conditions. This work was conducted in collaboration with the teams of Dr. Jorge Dubcovsky and Dr.

This year, we are seeing leaf rust in our UC Davis wheat breeding trials. Normally, we do not see leaf rust here because the growing season is cool. By the time temperatures are warm enough for leaf rust, the crop is already maturing. 

This year is different. A warmer winter and early season allowed both stripe rust and leaf rust to develop. This could become more important if warm winters continue. 

We are excited to start a new project funded by USDA-NIFA to develop better wheat varieties for the future. In this project, we are testing new plant height genes (PLATZ1 and AP2L2) to replace the older ones (Rht-B1b, Rht-D1b) used since the Green Revolution. We will evaluate whether these new genes can help wheat grow better under tough conditions like drought, deep planting, and low nitrogen. Our goal is to develop varieties that produce high yields while staying resilient in changing environments.

At the UCD Small Grains Breeding Program, this week was about teamwork in action. We harvested field plots together –– students, staff, and researchers working side by side, learning by doing. It was hands-on, fast-paced, and a reminder that good agricultural science starts in the field.

The UC Davis Small Grains Breeding Program recently held a field tour to kick off the 2026 field season. Students and researchers visited the experimental fields in Davis to observe early crop development and begin recording key agronomic and disease traits in breeding populations and research nurseries.