Characterizing Testing Locations In the Soybean Variety Trials In Louisiana.

CHARACTERIZING TESTING LOCATIONS IN THE SOYBEAN VARIETY TRIALS IN LOUISIANA. Sterling B. Blanche and Millie P. Deloach. LSU AgCenter, Dean Lee Research Station, 8105 Tom Bowman Drive, Alexandria, LA 71302 Tremendous land, equipment, labor, and monetary resources are invested each year into statewide variety trials. The data provided by these trials helps those in the seed trade make important decisions regarding which experimental lines should be advanced to the next stage of development and where they should be marketed and under which specific conditions. Producers use the information to make variety selection decisions based on data from their local growing conditions. In the 2010 Louisiana Soybean Performance Trials, 191 soybean varieties (MG 3, 4, 5, and 6) were tested at 6 locations throughout the major soybean production regions of Louisiana. Test locations included the Dean Lee Research Station near Alexandria, LA, the Northeast Research Station near St. Joseph, LA, the Macon Ridge Research Station near Winnsboro, LA, the Red River Research Station near Bossier City, LA, the Rice Research Station near Rayne, LA, and the Iberia Research Station, near New Iberia, LA. The discriminating ability of the test locations was determined using the standard deviation of the mean of the 191 entries. A second analysis, using correlation coefficients between individual locations and the 6-location mean, was conducted to determine the representativeness of each of the test locations. Differences existed between test locations for yield level, variation among entries, and representativeness.