LOUISIANA AGRICULTURAL CENTER SMALL GRAIN PERFORMANCE TRIALS PROCEDURES, POLICIES AND PROTOCOL - 2018

Members of the Louisiana Agricultural Center annually conduct performance trials on the following crops: corn, cotton, oats, sorghum, soybeans, summer and winter forages, and wheat. Results from these trials are published to provide performance information to producers seed dealers, originators of the entries, and other interested concerns. Inclusion of an entry in a performance trial does not constitute an endorsement of that variety by the LSU AgCenter. POLICIES: 1. Trial Locations. The state will be divided into two regions for wheat and oat trials. The northern half of the state shall include trials at Alexandria, Bossier City, St .Joseph, and Winnsboro. The southern half shall include trials at Baton Rouge, Crowley, and Jeanerette. Entries must be tested in both regions initially, and flat fee will be charged for all entries from commercial companies, whether tested in a single region or statewide. a. The northern Louisiana wheat variety trial will be divided into two maturity groups: (1) Early-heading entries (~7 days earlier than test mean) and (2) normal to late heading entries. A set of three medium heading date entries will be grown with both groups to permit cross-comparison. This should allow better evaluation of the potential early lines and permit more timely harvest of both groups. b. The southern Louisiana trials will include the early group entries from North Louisiana plus normal-maturing lines from group (2) above for which data indicates they will head out normally. c. All new entries will be grown in the normal/late trial in north Louisiana. New entries will be grown in a maturity screening yield trial at Baton Rouge for the first year and will not be entered in the other south southern Louisiana standard variety trial the first year unless previous testing in Baton Rouge (other regional trials and breeders nurseries) indicates they are adapted to southern Louisiana. d. A wheat screening nursery will be grown at Baton Rouge and Winnsboro to permit breeders / companies to test breeding lines for adaptation to Louisiana and determine whether to enter them in statewide trials the following year. These tests will be two replication yield trials and will be limited to 10 entries per company. 2. Data Publication. The LSU AgCenter Research Summary on small grain performance will be published and posted online in a timely manner each summer to assist with decision making for the following season. A summary table will be published for each location with two-year yield data where possible. Information on each location will include growing conditions, cultural practices, disease occurrence, and agronomic performance. Across-region and across-year summary tables will also be published. These will be placed on a web page as preliminary data as soon as completed. a. The preliminary data should be sent out to originating seedsmen within six weeks of harvest, no later than July 15. b. Data should be published on the wheat breeding web for the general public by August 1 and the Research Summary should be posted to the LSU AgCenter website by September 1. 3. Submission of Entries: All companies / breeders are eligible to submit entries for the performance trials, providing they are the legal owner or distributor of the variety. All submissions should be marketed or under consideration for marketing in Louisiana. The specific coordinator of the trial, date of submission, seed required, and other details are contained in the application material. Submissions should be listed in order of priority. Seed must be received by the date listed for the crop, and can not be sent COD. All freight charges must be prepaid. In the event that there are more submissions than can be handled in a trial, the coordinator will determine which submissions to omit. 4. Billing: After the trials have been planted and a satisfactory stand established, you will be billed for the varieties you submitted. Every effort will be made to conduct the trials as planned, including recording appropriate notes, harvesting, and publishing the results. In the event that weather patterns or other environmental factors, extreme incidence of disease or insect pressure, or other unavoidable factors preclude the completion of the trials, the LSU AgCenter will not refund the fees submitted. Scientists of the LSUAC will act in good faith to conduct the trials in a professional manner and provide unbiased, reliable results to all concerns. 5. Trial Procedures: a. All seed will be packaged by plot in labeled envelopes and distributed by the coordinator (Steve Harrison). b. Randomized complete block design field books will be prepared and distributed by the coordinator along with an Excel file version of the field book. c. The site cooperator will not change the randomizations, plot assignments, or plot order of the tests and will send all data on the Excel file to the coordinator. The site cooperator can arrange the field layout of the plots in any way that matches the space and equipment available for planting, keeping in mind that the blocks (reps) should correspond to variation in the field in order to minimize error variance. For example, a replication may be 1 range x 30 plots, 2 x 15, 3 x 10, 5 x 6, etc. A field map will be sent to the coordinator after planting. d. The coordinator will contact each site cooperator as soon as the packaged seed is available. It is the joint responsibility of the coordinator and the cooperator to see that the seed arrive at the test site and are planted in a timely manner. 6. Planting, Cultural Practices, and Note-taking, and Harvest a. Plots should be planted between Nov 1 and Nov 21 in south Louisiana; and between Oct 21 and Nov 14 in north Louisiana. b. Plots should be harvested as soon as possible after 90% of plots have reached harvest moisture. c. All aspects of plot maintenance are the responsibility of the cooperator, including planting, harvest, routine data collection, and application of fertilizers and chemicals (herbicides and insecticides). d. All site information will be recorded on the Excel file provided by the coordinator and sent via email once all data has been entered and proofed. Each cooperator should proof the file by sorting the data by entry/rep and looking for odd data points prior to sending to the coordinator. e. Preplant and post-emergence herbicides shall be used as needed to control annual ryegrass, winter annual bluegrass, and other weed problems of wheat and oats. f. Preplant fertilization will be in accordance with soil test results, or knowledge of previous crop history and soil fertility. g. Spring nitrogen topdressing rate will be at the discretion of the cooperator, based on crop history, soil types, winter growth pattern, and previous experience. h. Plots will be harvested as soon as possible after physiological maturity and drydown. i. The cooperator is responsible for monitoring of the plots and taking routine notes such as stand density issues, heading date, lodging, plant height, and bird damage. j. Fungicides will not be routinely applied to the standard wheat and oat variety trials. Disease resistance is an important component of variety performance in Louisiana. k. Disease data will be collected by cooperating pathologists of the wheat breeder. The cooperator is responsible for notifying the pathologists or breeder that disease notes need to be taken. The cooperator should consider growth stage and severity of the disease when making this decision. l. The cooperator will send all data (proofed) to the coordinator in a timely manner using prescribed formats on the Excel sheets provided. Every effort should be made to get all data to the coordinator within 10 days of harvest (no later than June 15). m. It is the responsibility of the coordinator to perform all statistical analyses and ensure the data is accurate and published in a timely manner. Cooperators and seedsmen will be given the opportunity to review the data prior to it's release as preliminary data will be released to participating seedsmen after it has been proofed by the cooperators, but prior to publication Format for Data Lines in Excel File When† Data Category Column Example Scale Heading Yield Yield at 13% moist BUPA 45.8 bu/acre 2 or all reps, TWT Test Weight TWT 56.8 lbs per bushel 2 reps, HDAY Heading Dayb HD 95 day of year 2 reps Plant Heightb HT 37 inches 2 reps if occurs Lodging1b LOD 3 0-9 2 reps Leaf Rust2a LFRUST 60 % 2 reps if occurs, otherwise note none Stripe Rust2a STRIPE 35 % 2 reps if occurs, otherwise note none Septoria 3a SEPT 6 0-9 2 reps if occurs, otherwise note none Bacteria3a BACT 4 0-9 2 reps or specific plots if occurs Powdery Mildew3a PM 3 0-9 2 reps or specific plots if occurs Barley Yellow3a BYDV 4 0-9 2 reps if occurs StemDwarf Rust3a Virus 4a 15a STRUST 6 0-9 2 reps if occurs Freeze Damage5b FRZ 5 0-9 2 reps or specific plot if occurs Bird Damage6b BRD 15 % † all = every line of data; 2 reps means ratings on only 2 reps are needed; /plot = only given plots if sporadic. a = normally taken by Harrison/Padgett/Price; b = taken by cooperator 1. Relative scale: 0 indicates no lodging, 9 indicates completely prostrate at harvest. 2. Percent of upper three leaves affected by disease (basically a modified Cobb’s Scale) 3. Relative scale: 0 indicates no disease and 9 indicates severe (essentially 100%) of lead area is discolored/ has lesions. 4. Relative scale: 0 indicates no pustules on leaves of stems, 9 indicates leaves have a significant percentage of affected area by pustules and stems are >50% pustules. 5. Relative scale: 0 indicates no freeze damage; 3 indicates moderate leaf damage; 5 indicates some stem and/or head damage; 9 indicates that most tillers are dead. 6. Relative scale where 0 is no damage and 9 indicates that >75% of seed have been eaten or removed from the head.