All posts by Virginia Sykes, Extension Variety Testing & Agroecology

Tennessee Corn Grain REC Data Now Available

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Our county corn trial numbers are still rolling in, but results are up for the small plot trials performed at the University of Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center locations. Results can be found at search.utcrops.com/corn-grains as both web tables or as a downloadable excel file. These tables will be updated with county data as soon as that is available.

AgResearch and Education Center (REC) plots are 5 ft (2, 30 in rows) by 30 ft and are replicated three times per location. Total number of entries was on par with most years, totaling 89 corn hybrids, representing 14 company/brands. Continue reading


2019 Tennessee Corn Silage Hybrid Trial

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Our 2019 Tennessee corn silage hybrid trial report is now available on search.utcrops.com/corn-silage. We had fewer hybrids than usual this year and all produced similar yields, averaging 8.4 tons/ac dry weight. Differences did show in terms of quality, however, with some hybrids producing significantly higher milk/ton. Mean separation (MS) values help us identify statistical differences between hybrids. Look for the “A” group to identify hybrids that were top performers within each trait. If looking at the online tables, be sure to scroll right to see all of the quality and agronomic traits evaluated.  Online tables can be found here or download the pdf and/or excel tables.


Cover Crop Species Selection for Tennessee Corn and Soybean Systems

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In Tennessee, corn harvest is beginning and soybeans will be right around the corner. Time to start talking about cover crops, in particular, what options are best for your cropping system. Cover crops offer many benefits to cash crop systems, including weed suppression, nutrient credits, improved soil health, pollinator habitat, and more. Many species can be used as cover crops but each differs in the ecological benefits it can provide to a system as well as in its adaptation to production regions in Tennessee.  This adaption is highly dependent on management practices, especially time of planting. A species selected as a top performer when planted after corn may not do so well in a system following soybeans, where cover crop planting is two to four weeks later. Planting a poorly adapted species reduces your return on investment in a cover cropping system, so let’s talk about what works in Tennessee. Continue reading


2018 Soybean Variety Tests in Tennessee – Prelim Report

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Our 2018 Tennessee Soybean Variety Trials report is nearly complete!   Results for yield and agronomic traits are now available – 2018 Soybean Variety Tests in Tennessee – PRELIM. Disease data will be updated early next week.  In the next week or so, these results will also be posted as mobile-friendly, searchable, sortable tables at search.utcrops.com.

Thank you for your patience this year.  We pride ourselves on getting data to you as quickly as possible, but, as most of you are aware, this has been a challenging harvest season for soybeans. Persistent rains delayed harvest for many of our variety trial locations, with the county standard tests seeing the worst of these delays. Fewer county locations are reported this year due to issues related to weather delays. In spite of the delayed harvest, yields for the majority of tests were good, averaging 54.8 bu/ac in the research center tests and 53.7 bu/ac in the county tests. Several varieties with average yields exceeding 60 bu/ac were observed.

Be sure to check back next week for updated disease data and excel tables.

 


2018 Corn Grain Hybrid Tests in Tennessee

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As promised, our 2018 TN corn grain hybrid trial data has been finalized and is now available. Follow these links for the full pdf and all excel tables.  We are still working on getting our web-friendly, sortable, and searchable tables up on search.utcrops.com.  I’ll post to the blog as soon as they are available, which should be sometime next week.

Due to persistent rain delaying harvest at some locations, our soybean variety trials data is likely still a week or two away, but will be posted as soon as possible!


2018 Corn Silage Hybrid Trials Report Now Available

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Our 2018 Corn Silage hybrid trials data has been finalized and is now available on search.utcrops.com/corn-silage . Here you can find the full pdf version of the report  as well as all tables in either excel format or as web-friendly, sortable and searchable tables.

The online tables have some nice features for finding the data you want quickly and easily.  Here are a few tips for viewing online.

  • Be sure to scroll to the right to view all columns.
  • Use the “previous” and “next” button to see all entries.
  • By default, columns are sorted by yield. If you’d like to sort  by a different column, just click on the column title.
  • If you are looking for a specific hybrid or trait package, the search feature is especially useful.  Just type what you are looking for into the “Search” box at the top right of the table.  For example, typing “TN” brings up all of our TN experimental lines in the test while typing “LL” displays all hybrids that had LL listed in their herbicide trait package.

New this year, we have 1 yr, 2 yr, and 3 yr data in the same table so that you can easily see which hybrids have been evaluated over multiple years and how they performed. Mean separation (MS) letters are also now given for each trait evaluated, rather than just yield. This allows for easy identification of top-performing hybrids for either yield, agronomic, or quality traits. Hybrids that have any MS letter in common, within a column, are not significantly different for that trait.

Be on the lookout for our corn grain prelim report to be posted within the next week!