Winter Wheat Variety Trial Results

The first N.D. winter wheat variety trial results for 2007 are available from the North Dakota State University Extension Service at www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/smgrains (or Google North Dakota small-grains page).

“Winter wheat yields are somewhat lower than observed in last year’s trials in some locations because of heavy disease pressure and high temperatures during grain fill,” notes NDSU Extension cereals agronomist Joel Ransom. “For example, at the Lisbon site there was a 20-bushel yield increase when fungicides were applied.”

Across locations, Millennium, a release from Nebraska, Jerry, an NDSU release, CDC Falcon and CDC Buteo from Canada and Expedition from South Dakota were among the highest yielding. NDSU no longer has a winter wheat breeding program, so the winter wheat testing program includes new releases from Canada, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, as well as private companies.

“Darrell, a new joint release from South Dakota and Nebraska that was included in trials for the first time this year, looks like a promising variety for use in North Dakota,” Ransom says. “However, this observation is based on limited data. To select a variety that will consistently yield well, you need to use data from multiple locations and years, if they are available.”

Winter wheat varietal information and data from NDSU and the University of Minnesota follow. More complete data (including WW test weight) for N.D. can be found online at www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/variety/index.htm.  The SDSU publication (EC 774) ‘Small Grains and Field Peas 2007 Variety Recommendations and 2006 Crop Performance Results’ includes winter wheat performance information and varietal recommendations for South Dakota. It is available on the Internet at http://agbiopubs.sdstate.edu/articles/EC774-07.pdf or http://plantsci.sdstate.edu/varietytrials/vartrial.html.

Two New SDSU Bulletins on ‘Alice’, ‘Darrell’

SDSU Extension Bulletins 753 and 754, “Alice: A High Yielding Hard White Winter Wheat,” and “Darrell: A High Yielding Hard Red Winter Wheat,” respectively, are available online at these links: http://agbiopubs.sdstate.edu/articles/B753.pdf and http://agbiopubs.sdstate.edu/articles/B754.pdf.

The publications give comparisons of Alice and Darrell varieties to other winter wheat varieties commonly grown in South Dakota. Both varieties were released to seed producers in 2006.