Statewide Winter Wheat Variety Evaluation - 2016

Objective:

To evaluate winter wheat varieties and experimental lines for agronomic performance in environments and cropping systems representative of northwestern Montana. 

Results:

Winter wheat yields averaged 97.3 bu/A, and ranged from to 16.4 bu/A for Bearpaw to 148.9 bu/A for MT1471 (Table 2). No fungicide applications were made and stripe rust was prevalent throughout the nursery. This in turn, had a negative effect on yield (Figure 1). The average infection level was 69.5 %, and ranged from 21.7 % for MT1488 to 99.3 % for WB4059CLP. Days to fifty percent heading averaged 149 days (May 28) and ranged from 139 days (May 18) for Freeman to 153 days (June 1) for WB-Quake and BZ9W09-2212. Height averaged 41.0 inches and ranged from 32.6 inches for WB4059CLP to 46.5 inches for WB3768. Lodging averaged 8.0 % and ranged from 0.0 % to 70.0 % for MT1348. Percent protein averaged 12.33 % and ranged from 10.93 % for WB3768 to 15.44 % Bearpaw. Test weights also were affected by stripe rust (Figure 2). Test weight averaged 53.7 lb/bu and ranged from a low of 38.7 lb/bu for Byrd to a high of 59.7 lb/bu for MT1488 and Warhorse. Falling numbers were fairly high for this nursery and averaged 336 seconds. The range in falling numbers was only 93 seconds and varied from a high of 390 for WB4623CLP to low of 297 for T158. The latter was the only entry which failed to meet the 300 second discount level.

Summary:

The 2016 growing conditions provided significant disease pressure resulting in noticeable yield reductions.  

Table 1. Materials and Methods.

Table 2. Agronomic data from the Intrastate Winter Wheat nursery, Kalispell - 2016.

HD: heading; HT: height; LOD: lodging; YLD: yield; PRO: protein; TWT: test weight; FN: falling number

¹ adjusted to 13% moisture; ² adjusted to 12% moisture

Figure 1. 

Figure 2.