Recently hired University of Idaho barley agronomist Jared Spackman plans to survey growers’ challenges and needs by region.
“For example, the needs of growers in southeast Idaho are not the same as growers in northern Idaho,” Spackman said. “You have entirely different growing conditions and soils. What are the specific needs in the regions, and the concerns, so we can target research and establish work targeting their specific concerns and interests?”
Results will inform updates to written recommendations for growers.
“The follow-up is then to have that survey help identify growers’ interest in participating in on-farm trials,” Spackman said. “That would allow us to rapidly collect data.”
He figures it would take five to 10 years of trials at the UI Aberdeen Research and Extension Center, where he is based, to update guidance on nitrogen fertility. He believes he could do it in two or three years if he had data from numerous farm fields — he could get more data, sooner, and it would reflect conditions at myriad locations.
“Instead of focusing on the research station, we also can take in different conditions where growers are producing barley,” Spackman said.
Idaho produces about one-third of the nation’s barley. Some 75-80% of the state’s crop is for malting, the rest for human or livestock food.
An Idaho Barley Commission initiative aims to increase awareness and opportunities for barley for human food consumption, domestically and in export markets, Administrator Laura Wilder said.
Spackman, who joined UI about two months ago, said a primary interest of growers and industry representatives is updating a barley-production guide “with a specific emphasis on the nutrient-management side of things.” The most recent edition is from 2003.
He plans to build on data his predecessor — Chris Rogers, now with USDA Agricultural Research Service in Kimberly, Idaho — gathered in the past couple of years. Spackman plans to work with Rogers on the project.
“For our recommendations to be really valuable and valid, we often want to have at least 20 to 30 similar experiments,” Spackman said. They would involve barley grown on dryland or irrigated farms at various sites for malting or food,
“Each needs sufficient data on which to base those recommendations,” he said.
UI Extension educators in south-central and southeastern Idaho often field questions about forage cereals that livestock consume in whole-plant form. Farmers, who tend to grow forage cereals in drought conditions or when grain prices are low, want to know the ideal time to cut them to optimize yield and quality, and the impact of nitrogen-management strategies.
Spackman plans to work with UI colleagues Steve Hines and Carmen Willmore, who have done some work on forage cereals.
Spackman, 29, completed a Ph.D. in nutrient management at the University of Minnesota. He grew up in Burley, Idaho.
He said he welcomes inquiries or research ideas at 208-397-4181 ext. 114 or [email protected].
