Principle Investigator: Gadi V.P. Reddy, Superintendent, Western Triangle Ag Research Center

Personnel: John H. Miller, Research Associate and Julie Prewett, Research Assistant WTARC, Conrad, MT, and Luther Talbert and Hwa-Young Heo, MSU Plant Science Dept., Bozeman, MT.

Cooperators: Bradley Farms, north of Cut Bank, MT Brian Aklestad, north of Devon, MT Aaron Killion, east of Brady, MT Inbody Farms, northeast of Choteau, MT

 

Objectives: There are diverse cropping environments within the area served by Western Triangle Agricultural Research Center. Each off station location has its own unique environment and soils. Producers in the various locations are interested in variety performance in the local area.

To this end the objective is to evaluate winter wheat varieties under the local conditions with respect to yield, test weight, plant height, and seed protein. The environmental conditions at the off station nurseries can vary greatly from those at WTARC. The research center strives to provide growers of the western triangle area unbiased information of various spring wheat varieties.

Methods: On station nursery is the Advance Yield Trial (AYT) with 64 entries replicated three times. Off station spring wheat nurseries consist of 20 entries replicated three times, seeded with a four row plot seeder on one foot spacing. All plots were planted on no-till chemical fallow.

Plots were trimmed, measured for length, and then harvested with a Hege 140 plot combine. Spring wheat seed was cleaned prior to collecting data. Wheat midge pheromone traps were also installed at each off station plot.

Results: Results are tabulated in Tables 1 thru 13. Results are tabulated in Table 1 for the advanced spring wheat nursery and Table 2 is five year averages for selected varieties in the advanced spring wheat nursery. Table 3 is for the off station irrigated spring wheat nursery, with multi-year data presented in Table 4. Tables 5 thru 12 are for the off station locations, with Table 13 representing the data from the SM1 nursery and Table 14 containing soil test data.

At the research center, this years’ overall crop year temperatures were slightly higher than the 30 year average at the research center, being 1.2 degrees warmer than normal. With November being 0.9 degrees warmer that the 30 year average. December and January average temperatures were very close to the long term average. February was exceptionally warmer, with the temperature being 11.4 degrees warmer than the 30 year average. March and April were also warmer by 4.6 and 2.4 degrees above the 30 year average. May temperatures were cooler than the average by 1.6 degrees. June was also above average by 1.9 degrees. With July and August being slightly cooler than normal by 2.1 and 2.7 degrees.

Precipitation at the research center was surprising with 5.18 inches more moisture than the 30 year average. We received above average moisture the fall of 2015, resulting in good soil moisture at planting. September was 1.82 inches above the 30 year average. October through December were 0.5 inches of precipitation above normal. January was ahead of the average with

2.1 inches more than the normal precipitation. February was exceedingly dry reporting no moisture for the month. With March close behind only receiving 0.2 of inch. April brought some much needed moisture with about an inch above the 30 year average, while May was only slightly above the 30 year average. June precipitation was 2.3 inches below normal. July received 1.4 inches over the 30 year average for precipitation.

The AYT yields ranged from 77.2 to 44.7 bu/ac, with an average of 59.8 bu/ac and 13.5 % seed protein. The 5 year yield and protein average for selected varieties in the AYT is 70.6 bu/ac and

13.5 % seed protein. Although, test weight was slightly lower than the 5 year average. The top yielding varieties were all Montana State University experimental entries. They are MT 1570, MT 1451, and MT 1320 with Vida being fourth on the list.

Top yielding varieties at Choteau were Duclair, Alum, and Montana State University line, MT 1401. The top three yielding varieties at Choteau were 39.3, 37.6, and 37.6 bu/ac, respectively (Table 5). Alum, Montana State University lines MT 1401, and MT 1316 were the high yielding varieties at Devon, 37.2, 36.6, and 34.5 bu/ac (Table 9) The ‘Knees’ high yielders at 25.5, 24.6, and 23.9 bu/ac, were Duclair, Alum, and Choteau. All entries at the ‘Knees’ were affected by stripe and tan rust. The best yielding varieties, at the Cut Bank location were Alum, Montana State University line MT1316, and Duclair. Yields at Cut Bank were 55.5, 52.6, and 48.1 bu/ac (Table7). The top yielders in the irrigated trial were Alum, at 98.9 bu/ac, Duclair at 90.4 bu/ac and Fortuna at 79.2 bu/ac (Table 3).

Yields in the irrigated off-station spring wheat trial ranged from 98.9 bu/ac to 56.3 bu/ac. When compared to the five year averages, the irrigated off-station spring wheat nursery had higher yields, with lower test weight, and slightly higher grain protein by 0.5% (Tables 3 and 4). At Devon the 2016 yield was up by 1.4 bu/ac from the five year average; with 2.2% lower grain protein and 1 lb/bu higher test weight than the five year average (Tables 9 and 10). The ‘Knees’ location had much lower yields, higher grain protein and much lower test weight when compared to the five year mean (Tables 11 and 12). All entries at the ‘Knees’ were affected by stripe and tan rust. Yields at Cut Bank ranged from 55.5 to 30.9 bu/ac, with slightly higher grain protein for the year, with slightly higher test weights (Tables 7 and 8).

The SM1 nursery has wheat that contains the gene to make it resistant to the wheat midge. Data are presented in Table 13. Soil test numbers can be found in Table 14.

No insect incidence (wheat stem sawfly or wireworms) was noticed in any of the spring wheat varieties at Devon or Cut Bank. The plots at Choteau and the ‘Knees’ had sawfly cutting, and the plot at the ‘Knees’ had stripe and tan rust. Because of the high number of parasitoids of the wheat stem sawfly at the research center very little stem cutting was observed. Insignificant amount of adult of wheat midge were found at the off station locations.

Summary: The data from the off station plots is supported by the local producers and advisory committee as well as the seed industry. It is planned to continue the off station variety plots at the same locations as the environmental conditions at each location is unique to the western triangle area. No insect incidence or damage was noticed in any of the varieties.

These data should be used for comparative purposes rather than using absolute numbers. Statistics are used to indicate that treatment or variety differences are really different and are not different due to chance or error. The least significant difference (LSD) and coefficient of variability (CV) values are useful in comparing treatment or variety differences. The LSD value represents the smallest difference between two treatments at a given probably level. The LSD at p=0.05 or 5 % probability level is usually the statistic reported, and it means that the odds are 19 to 1 that treatment differences by the amount of the LSD are truly different. The CV value measures the variability of the experiment or variety trial, and a CV greater than 15 % indicates a high degree of variability and less accuracy.

Funding Summary: Office of Special Projects will provide expenditure information. No other grants support this project.

MWBC FY2017 Grant Submission Plans: A similar project will be proposed for FY 2017. The continuation of on and off-station variety trials help to elucidate researchers and farmers which varieties are better suited for that particular region in Montana.