This database is for exploring all trial data from variety agronomic trials conducted by Oregon State University, University of Idaho and Washington State University, down to plot level when it is available. The data are organized by program, nursery, location, year and irrigation status.
A "trial" in this database is a single experiment conducted at a single location for one growing season. Each trial has a unique trial name. This is a long string with embedded information about the trial, eg:
SEIdahoCereals_SWW_SOS_2020
Which contains this information:
Program_nursery_location_year
You do not have to know how to interpret the embedded information to use this database. In most instances, the information is provided in other column headers. However, it is helpful to pay attention to trial names to avoid inadvertently treating multiple different trials if they were one. Below is more information on how to interpret these codes.
Program Codes
A program is a long-term variety testing endeavor for a particular crop and agronomic region and typically run by a single institution. Currently, 6 programs have provided data for this project.
| Program Code | Program |
|---|---|
| SEIdahoCereals | South Central and Southeast Idaho Cereals |
| SWIdahoCereals | Southwest Idaho Cereals |
| NIdahoCereals | North Idaho Grains |
| OregonCereals | Oregon Cereals |
| EWashingtonCereals | Eastern & Central Washington Cereals |
| WWashingtonGrains | Western Washington Grains |
Nursery Codes
"Nursery" refers to a general trial type and it indicates the purpose of the trial. In most instances, the market class of wheat (or combined classes such as "hard winter wheat") is the nursery designation.
| Nursery Code | Description |
|---|---|
| SWW | Soft White Winter Wheat |
| HWW | Hard White Winter Wheat |
| HRW | Hard Red Winter Wheat |
| SWS | Soft White Spring Wheat |
| SWSclub | Soft White Spring Club Wheat |
| HWS | Hard White Spring Wheat |
| HRS | Hard Red Spring Wheat |
| H_W | Hard Winter Wheat |
| H_S | Hard Spring Wheat |
| WWCL | Winter Wheat Clearfield |
| WW | Winter Wheat Disease Trial |
| SW | Spring Wheat Disease Trial |
| SWWCL | Soft White Winter Wheat Clearfield |
Location Codes
There are several dozen locations where trials have been conducted. This locations table contains a list of each location, its abbreviations and its agronomic classification.
Year
A 4-digit year is used indicating the year of harvest and reporting. Hence a winter wheat trial with the year "2020" would have been planted in the fall of 2019.
Extra
Occasionally some trials have additional treatments that require additional labels in the trial name in order to uniquely identify it. Some examples:
OregonCereals_H_S_PEN_2020_NF
SEIdahoCereals_SWW_RI_2020_irrigated
EWashingtonCereals_HRS_MLK_2006_irradpt
EWashingtonCereals_H_S_MAT_2022_fall_planted
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| NF | No fungicides were used in the trial |
| blends | A trial consisting of blends of multiple varieties |
| fall_planted | A spring wheat nursery that was planted in the fall |
| irradpt | Separate nursery containing only varieties adapted to irrigation |
| disease | Trial for evaluating varietal response to a plant disease |
| irrigated | An additional trial that is irrigated |
| dryland | An additional trial that is dryland |
Traits
Many traits have been evaluated across these 6 programs. A very small number of traits are evaluated at most trials: yield, test weight, and height.
The trait codebook contains information about every trait and allowable levels.
In addition to various agronomic traits, there is also general information about each experimental plot that may be available:
| Variable | Meaning | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| plot | Unique plot number within a trial. This information is required for inclusion in the database. | yes |
| row | Row position when planted (for a grid layout) | no |
| range | Range or column position when planted (for a grid layout) | no |
| block | Block designation. These are numbered sequentially starting from 1. If a block designation is "98", the observation is from analysis of a bulked sample. If a block designation is "99", the observation is from an analysis conducted elsewhere and the original plot-level data is not available. This information is required for inclusion in the database. | yes |
| incomplete_block | Incomplete block designation for incomplete block (IBD) and lattice experimental designs. | yes for IBD and lattice design |
| plot width, plot length | The dimensions of a plot (ft) | no |
| agronomic treatment | An agronomic treatment applied at the plot level | no |
Metadata
We attempted to collect a comprehensive set of trial metadata whenever possible. Some of these trials are older and records are sparse. In addition to year, location and nursery information, the planting date, harvest date and experimental design are available for most trials.
The metadata codebook contains a comprehensive list of metadata information available in the trials.
Cultivars & Accessions
A very careful process to uniquely identify genetically distinct cultivars, accessions or unreleased candidates was undertaken during data curation. Cultivars with different names or alphanumeric codes were identified and collated together under their most recent assigned name. All cultivars can be searched here.