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September 15, 2006
When buying seed, wheat producers may want to choose a mix of varieties for planting their fall crop, said Texas Cooperative Extension specialist Brent Bean in Amarillo.
"Keep in mind that variety performance will vary from year to year," he said. "For this reason, it is a good idea to plant more than one variety. We are beginning to look at planting three varieties in a blend."
The past two years have been extremely different, Bean said, with the 2004-05 crop having excellent moisture throughout most of the wheat season, resulting in good yields in spite of an unprecedented outbreak of stripe rust. The 2005-06 growing season was just the opposite.
"We started out with a dry fall and it only got drier as the season progressed," Bean said.
Varieties that have consistently performed well over the years under a wide range of conditions include Dumas, TAM 111 and Jagalene, regardless of whether it is irrigated or dryland, Bean said. Cutter and TAM 110 have also topped the dryland varieties list. "Unlike last year, where TAM 111 was clearly the best variety, no one variety dominated the trials this year," he said.
However, in the irrigated trials several varieties consistently ranked in the top 20 percent across locations, including AP502 CL, Texas experimental entries 3232 and 1117, Duster, Hatcher, TAM 112, TAM 111, and Keota, Bean said.
Only three dryland trials were harvested this year, he said.
For a brief discussion of each variety, go to: http://amarillo.tamu.edu/programs/agronomy/publications. Previous years' wheat variety test results can also be viewed at this site, Bean said.
