Malheur Experiment Station Information for Sustainable Agriculture

2007 Winter Elite Wheat trial

Clinton C. Shock, Eric P. Eldredge, and Lamont D. Saunders

Malheur Experiment Station

Jim Peterson and Mike Flowers

Crop and Soil Science

Oregon State University

Ontario, OR

Introduction

Malheur Experiment Station provides one location for the Oregon State University Statewide Winter Elite Wheat variety testing program. This location compares soft white winter wheat variety performance in a furrow-irrigated, high yield potential environment. Plant breeders can use information on variety performance to compare advanced lines with released cultivars. Growers can use this information to make decisions about which soft white winter wheat varieties may perform best in their fields.

Methods

The trial was grown on Owyhee silt loam where the previous crop was sweet corn. After harvest, the corn stalks were flailed, the field was disked, and the soil was sampled and analyzed. The analysis showed 264 lb available nitrogen (N) per acre in the top 2 ft of soil. The top foot of soil contained 35 ppm phosphorus (P), 368 ppm potassium (K), and 13 ppm sulfate (SO₄)/acre, 1,878 ppm calcium (Ca), 506 ppm magnesium (Mg), 96 ppm sodium (Na), 1 ppm zinc (Zn), 7 ppm iron (Fe), 6 ppm manganese (Mn), 0.7 ppm copper (Cu), 0.3 ppm boron (B), pH 7.2, and 1.75 percent organic matter. Pre-plant fertilizer consisted of 2 lb B/acre that was broadcast on October 5, 2006. The crop received no further fertilization during the production cycle. The soil was deep ripped, plowed, and groundhogged to prepare the seedbed. The field was corrugated into 30-inch rows.

The Winter Elite Wheat Trial was comprised of 40 soft white winter (SWW) wheat cultivars or lines, five of which were club types, and eight with resistance to imazamox herbicide for use in the BASF "Clearfield^®" system (designated SWW-CI). Seed was treated with Dividend^® XL RTA^® fungicide seed treatment. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with three replications. Grain was planted on October 19, 2006, with a small-plot grain drill in plots 5 by 20 ft, and the field was recorrugated. Seed was planted at 30 live seed/ft², corresponding to approximately 110 lb/acre. The soil was dry so the wheat was irrigated on October 24, 2006. There was slow emergence and little growth through the dry winter.

Broadleaf weeds were controlled with Bronate Advance™ herbicide at 18 oz/acre applied on April 24. Alleys were cut with a sickle bar mower on June 15. Plant height at maturity was measured in the trial on July 6. The alleys were recut with a Hege plot combine on July 16 and the resulting length of each plot was measured and recorded. The plots were harvested on July 17 with a Hege plot combine. Yield and test weight differences were compared using ANOVA and least significant differences at the 5 percent probability level, LSD (0.05). Differences in yield or test weight between varieties should be equal to or greater than the corresponding LSD (0.05) value before any variety is considered different from another in this trial.

Results

The date of 50 percent heading in the Winter Elite Wheat Trial varieties, when half of the culms had extended the peduncle above the collar of the flag leaf, ranged from May 20 (day of year 140) for 'ORH010837' and 'Gene' to May 30 (day of year 150) for 'ARS00235' (Table 1). Height at maturity ranged from 35.3 inches for Gene to 43.7 inches for 'ARSC96059-1' and 'ID99-435'. No lodging was observed in any of the varieties. Test weights in this year ranged from 58.7 lb/bu for 'OR2050910' to 62.5 lb/bu for 'ORH010085'. Protein content of the grain ranged from 7.0 percent for 'ID9364901A' to 8.9 percent for Gene.

Yields ranged from 132.7 bu/acre for '99x1009-23' to 86.2 bu/acre for 'Cara' club wheat (Table 2). Among the highest yielding wheat varieties in 2007 were the top 17 lines in the trial from 99x1009-23 to 'Salute'. 'Stephens', a check variety in this trial, and the soft white winter wheat variety most commonly grown in this production area, continues to show excellent yield performance, placing among the top yielding varieties in the trial at 130.4 bu/acre.

Information on previous wheat trials at Malheur Experiment Station is available on the web at http://cropinfo.net. Information on the performance of the varieties in this trial at other Oregon locations is available on the web at http://cropandsoil.oregonstate.edu/wheat/state_performance_data.htm.

Table 1. Winter Elite Wheat Trial market class, test weight, percent moisture, protein, plant height, and 50 percent heading date, Malheur Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Ontario, OR, 2007.

Table 2. Winter Elite Wheat Trial market class, yield ranked by 2007 productivity, and 2-year and 3-year average yields. All yields are at 12 percent moisture. Grain yields shaded in gray are not significantly different from the highest yield at this site. Malheur Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Ontario, OR, 2007.