PEP-NBT: Product Evaluation Protocol and the Next Big Thing in Wheat Production

A new trial was established at the Princeton Research and Education Center on a Crider silt loam. The trial site is in a corn-wheat-doublecrop soybean rotation. There would be ten treatments, with one check/control treatment and nine product treatments, and six replications. The six replications allows statistical detection/fair evaluation of products that promise smaller yield increases (around 5 %), assuming reasonable in-field variation. The Small Grain Growers are invited to nominate up to six products for evaluation. A modern, high yielding soft red winter wheat variety would be used. Plot management (soil pH, N, P and K, and weed, disease and insect control) will follow UK recommendations and will be optimized to the site and the season. Bruening will be in charge of trial establishment, maintenance and harvest (yield, test weight and grain moisture. Grove will be in charge of product evaluation protocols and all other evaluations/sampling needs related to product effectiveness. The student intern(s) will accompany Bruening and Grove for the duration of the wheat production season. The additional measures/ samples to be taken are difficult to estimate at the outset, but could include stand establishment, soil penetration resistance, available soil nutrient levels, crop dry matter accumulation at critical growth stages, plant tissue sampling, chlorophyll meter readings, or active canopy sensor (NDVI) evaluations. At harvest, the plots will be threshed using a small plot combine and the yield, test weight and grain moisture determined. If needed, grain protein will be determined.