Cooperative No-Till Variety Trial

The goal of this study was to exploit the traits of ten varieties considered to be important in selecting a variety for no-till in Kentucky. Typical growing seasons in Kentucky tend to require wheat varieties to adapt to a multitude of problems. Among these problems are winter hardiness, tillering ability, susceptibility to wheat spindle streak virus (WSSMV) and possibly head scab incidence are compounded in no-till seedbeds.

Each variety was selected not for its overall performance or market share in wheat production, rather each variety exhibits a trait considered to be important in variety selection in no-till management. For example, Pioneer 2540 is considered to be a prolific tillering variety while Becker was selected for its excellent standability.

In order to analyze the benefits and/or the handicaps these traits exhibit when no-till plots are compared to conventional plantings, certain environmental conditions are required. Unfortunately, many of these traits did not surface as being relevant problems this year. The above average temperatures from December through February followed by the extremely cold week of March produced moderate amounts of spring freeze injury. The coupled with the excessive heat during grain fill greatly influenced yield which masked many of the differences being analyzed.

Overall, the conventional plot outyielded the no-till plot by 4.7 bushels. This comparison is trivial, but it was included because that is what everyone is interested in. Please remember this was not the goal of this study. If we look at groups of varieties, we may be able to draw some inferences.

In general, varieties that had sufficient tillers that had not reached Feeke's 6 (jointing) at the time of the freeze in March tended to have higher yields in the conventional seedbed. This yield difference can be attributed to higher head counts due to less overall freeze damage. This group includes Clark, Patterson, Becker, Kentucky American Justice and Pioneer 2540.

Varieties such as Pioneer 2568, AgriPro Foster and Pioneer 25R26 yielded slightly better in the no-till. This can partially be explained by the conventional plots being slightly more advanced during the freeze. It stands to reason that if more tillers are jointed, more yield loss due to freeze damage is inevitable.

This trend continues with respect to the FFR-555. In the no-till seed bed, this variety was slower in advancing through the growth stages and had fewer tillers that had reached Feeke's 6 in comparison with the conventional planting. The resulting difference in amount of freeze damaged tillers produced an appreciable difference in yield.

Variety	No-Till Yield (Bu/A)	Conventional Yield (Bu/A)
Clark	64.3	76.3
Patterson	72.6	84.8
Pioneer 2568	81.0	80.0
AgriPro Foster	76.4	72.9
Coker 9663	82.4	89.8
Becker	63.3	83.7
FFR-555	72.3	62.1
Ky American Justice	72.8	80.0
Pioneer 2540	88.9	97.9
Pioneer 25R26	88.1	81.1

Average	76.2	80.9

This study is one of three designed to determine which varieties and/or variety characteristics are best suited to no-till wheat production. For comparative purposes, all of the selected varieties were planted at Schochoh and at Owensboro using conventional tillage techniques. The different studies are conducted by the University of Kentucky (Dr. Dave Van Sanford), Wheat Tech (Scott Jones) and Miles Opti-Crop (Phil Needham).

Variety	Owensboro		Schochoh
Variety	No-Till	Conventional	No-till	Conventional
Clark	64.1	64.0	71.4	85.7
Patterson	53.2	55.1	68.3	84.9
AgriPro Foster	59.7	61.2	69.2	82.1
Becker	46.3	46.5	64.4	77.6
Ky Amercian Justice	55.0	58.1	78.2	85.2
FFR-555	43.2	47.8	72.0	52.8
Coker 9663	66.3	67.1	81.3	86.3
Pioneer 2568	55.3	55.5	69.3	81.1
Pioneer 2540	48.1	68.7	76.1	92.2
Pioneer 25R26	58.3	57.9	74.1	83.6

Average	54.9	58.2	72.4	81.1

LSD (P=.05)	9.23		15.05
Standard deviation	6.53		10.64
CV	11.53		13.86

The average differences in yields between no-till and conventional tillage at Owensboro were only 3.3 Bu/A, but some varieties such as Pioneer 2540 yielded as much as 20.6 Bu/A more in the conventional environment. The Schochoh plots did reveal a good response to conventional seedbeds in comparison to no-till, by averaging 8.8 Bu/A better, with some individual varieties such as Patterson yielding 16.6 Bu/A higher. Only one variety FFR555 yielded less in conventional than no-till with a difference of 19.2 Bu/A.

A protein analysis was also performed with our NIR unit on all Schochoh treatments and every plot was equal or better in the conventional study, and averaged 0.4% better in conventional.

The test weights were also analyzed, and it was found that the average test weight on all varieties at Schochoh was 0.6 lbs./Bu higher in conventional than in no-till studies.