The Uniform Northwestern States Oat Nursery is planted at KES each year to identify promising new oat lines for release by public and private breeding programs. The Klamath Basin has a short growing season with frequent frosts throughout the summer, which limits cropping options in the area to small grains, alfalfa, potatoes, sugar beets, and pasture. Much of the acreage planted to small grains is on soils which are not suitable for potatoes or alfalfa and are maintained in a continuous small grain rotation. Due to greater susceptibility of spring wheat to frost damage, and lower oat yields and price, barley is planted on over 80 percent of the acreage devoted to small grains. Under continuous cropping, diseases and pests such as wheat stem maggot, common root rot, and barley root knot nematode have become serious problems in some areas.
Wind erosion is also a problem on some soils.
Much of the cropland in the lower Klamath Basin is reclaimed lake bottom. Some of these soils have very poor structure and poor aggregate strength. The inclusion of legumes and forage grasses in a rotation has been shown to improve soil structure, soil aggregate strength, and other measures of soil health. Interseeding of legumes into small grains has increased grain yield in some locations. Increased yield has been attributed to nitrogen transfer from the legume, weed suppression, and improved soil conditions.