MISSION
To provide the highest quality, unbiased, head-to-head yield and agronomic data on crop varieties that are being marketed, or targeted for marketing, to producers in Tennessee.
OBJECTIVES
Develop a regionally recognized, congruous agronomic crop variety testing and demonstration program for crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton.
Determine the impact of factors such as cropping sequences, cover crops, plant populations, nutrient management, and genetically modified traits on crop production.
PROCEDURES
Crop varieties with traditional and novel genetic traits and value-added characteristics will be evaluated in different physiographic regions to determine adaptation and best management practices for their successful production in Tennessee. Pursuant to the above, replicated experimental field plots of each variety will be grown at multiple Research & Education Centers (RECs) each year. In addition, County Standardized Trials (CST, i.e., strip-trials) will be conducted for each crop in multiple, selected counties on producer’s farms each year.
Data from the RECs and the CSTs will be compiled, summarized and published together for each crop year. Randomized complete block, incomplete block, and split-plot experimental designs are used in conducting the experiments. The particular design used in each case depends on the objective(s) of the experiment. All physical steps of the experiments from seed packaging through harvesting are mechanized to the fullest extent possible. Data analyses are conducted primarily via the SAS statistical software.
Computer software programs such as Excel and Adobe are utilized to create electronic forms, experimental plans, data sets, summaries, and other files in order to improve the efficiency of acquisition, mergers, storage and analysis of large data sets.