An introduced winter annual closely related to wheat. Generally more cold and drought tolerant than cropped grains. Identifying jointed goatgrass can be challenging because seedlings resemble winter wheat in appearance. There are two prominent traits that help distinguish between seedlings of the two species. First, jointed goatgrass seedlings have evenly spaced hairs lining the leaf blade margin and second; jointed goatgrass will have a spikelet attached to the root. Jointed goatgrass follows a life cycle very similar to winter wheat. The seed heads are the easiest  distinguishing characteristic, winter wheat will have a broad open structure with fairly long awns, jointed goatgrass heads are cylindrical, obviously jointed and with very short awns. The joints easily separate at maturity. The seeds of winter wheat and jointed goatgrass are extremely difficult to separate at harvest. The two species will easily hybridize and cause serious reductions of yield up to 50%. Jointed goatgrass matures sooner than winter wheat and other grains and will take on a darker green to nearly black appearance in the late growth stages, just before senescence.

Easily controlled with cultivation. Only reproducing from seed, stopping that production is critical to eliminating this pest. Seeds can survive up to 5 years, but suffer heavy predation from rodent and insect feeding. Livestock will graze in the early stages of growth and can be very effective control. Readily controlled with Glyphosate (Roundup) in the appropriate setting. Control becomes difficult once established in grain fields. The close relation with wheat makes it impossible so far to selectively remove with herbicide. Early infestations should be sprayed out sacrificing the small amount of grain present. Crop rotation offers the best hope of control in irrigated production agriculture along with purchasing clean certified seed.
‍
Information from “Selected Noxious Weeds of Eastern Oregon,” by Gary Page, Malheur County Weed Inspector.