ARS | Publication request: Integrated Management of Jointed Goatgrass in the Pacific Northwest

Submitted to: Western Society of Weed Science Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: March 8, 2009
Publication Date: July 13, 2009
Citation: Young, F.L., Yenish, J.P., Ball, D.A., Thill, D.C. 2009. Integrated Management of Jointed Goatgrass in the Pacific Northwest. Western Society of Weed Science Meeting Proceedings.

Technical Abstract: Jointed goatgrass (JGG) was first discovered in Washington near Hay in 1917. In the Pacific Northwest (PNW) JGG decreases soil health, grain quantity and quality, and increases marketing expenses. Since the initiation of the National Jointed Goatgrass Research Program in the western United States, funds have been available for scientists to conduct biology, ecology, production, genetics, and integrated management studies to reduce the economic impact of JGG on winter wheat-based production systems. Numerous single-component studies have been conducted in the past 10 to 15 years and many of the strategies from these studies have been integrated into three PNW long-term integrated weed management (IWM) field experiments to control JGG. Strategies that have been integrated include: plant competitive wheat varieties, increase wheat seeding rate and seed size, delay spring wheat seeding, burn wheat stubble (once), fertilize wheat at the time of planting, till fields lightly (annually), include broadleaf crop and/or reduce the frequency of planting winter wheat in rotations, and plant herbicide-resistant winter wheat varieties. In the 3-state IWM study, the best combination of treatments for crop yield and reduced JGG population was a one-time stubble burn, 3-years out of winter wheat, and integrated practices for planting winter wheat. In the IWM tillage study, a treatment of one-time deep-plowing followed by annual reduced tillage crops decreased spikelets more than a one-time deep plow, followed by annual no-till crops. These studies indicate that integrating several management strategies into wheat-based cropping systems reduce the impact of jointed goatgrass.