Field Tour Marks the Start of the 2026 Small Grains Research Season

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. 

These field trials form the foundation of our research program, linking genetics, genomics, and high-throughput phenotyping with real-world crop performance. Field trials allow us to evaluate breeding materials under production conditions to understand how genetic variation translates into agronomic performance. 

The work supports several major research directions in our program, including building stable disease resistance, improving yield stability under environmental stress, and accelerating the deployment of useful genetics into adapted varieties. 

The field season also provides an important opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience in crop phenotyping, disease assessment, and breeding selection, connecting classroom learning with practical agricultural systems.