CONTRACT BETWEEN

MONTANA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION

RESEARCH CENTERS

and

MONTANA WHEAT AND BARLEY COMMITTEE

TITLE: Assessing agronomic practices to advance cereal production in

Montana

TIME PERIOD: Jan 1, 2018 to Dec 31, 2018

PERSONNEL: Research Scientists at the following AES Research Centers:

1. Southern Agricultural Research Center (SARC) - Huntley

Kent A. McVay, Extension Crop Scientist & Coordinator

2. Northern Agricultural Research Center (NARC) - Havre

Peggy Lamb, Crop Scientist

3. Central Agricultural Research Center (CARC) - Moccasin

Jed Eberly, Soil Microbiologist

4. Eastern Agricultural Research Center (EARC) - Sidney

Chengci Chen, Superintendent/Crop Scientist

5. Northwestern Agricultural Research Center (NWARC) - Kalispell

Robert N. Stougaard, Superintendent/Weed Scientist

6. Western Triangle Ag Research Center (WTARC) - Conrad

Gadi V.P. Reddy, Entomologist

COOPERATORS: Research Scientists, Research Associates, Assistants, Technicians

and Farm Managers at each research center, and cooperating

producers hosting off-station research trials on farms across

Montana.

OBJECTIVES:

1. To evaluate the effects of differing systems on crop and variety

performance under diverse environments represented across

the state of Montana.

2. To evaluate the potential fit of other materials, concepts and

techniques with various cropping systems employed for cereal

crop production.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION:

Montana agricultural producers are always looking for the development and

implementation of new and/or refined materials and methods for enhanced

economic efficiency in cereal crop production. This project is designed to provide

answers on these issues to producers across the many regions of the state.

PROJECTS:

I. Cropping System Investigations

a. Spring grain performance following various cover crop mixes in

southcentral Montana – SARC

b. Evaluation of spring wheat under dryland recrop conditions – EARC

c. Evaluation of durum under dryland recrop conditions – EARC

d. Evaluation of barley under dryland recrop conditions – EARC

II. Cereal Variety Performance Evaluations

a. Hard Red & White Winter Wheat Trials

i. Off-station winter wheat variety performance trials in south central

Montana – SARC

ii. North central Montana off-station winter wheat cultivar performance

evaluations – NARC

iii. Off-station winter wheat cultivar evaluations for the Western Golden

Triangle area of Montana – WTARC

iv. Winter cereal forage cultivar evaluations for the Western Golden

Triangle area of Montana – WTARC

v. Off-Station winter wheat variety performance trials in Central

Montana – CARC

vi. Evaluation of Clearfield Winter Wheat Experimental Lines–NWARC

vii. Evaluation of Experimental Winter Wheat Lines for Stripe Rust

Resistance – NWARC

viii. Evaluation of Winter Wheat Varieties and Population for Winter

Survival – EARC

b. Hard Red & White Spring Wheat Trials

i. Off-station spring wheat variety performance trials in south central

Montana – SARC

ii. North central Montana off-station spring wheat cultivar performance

evaluations – NARC

iii. Off-station spring wheat cultivar evaluations for the Western Golden

Triangle area of Montana – WTARC

iv. Off-station spring wheat variety performance trials in Central

Montana – CARC

v. Western Regional Hard Spring Wheat Nursery – NWARC

vi. Spring wheat off-station nursery – NWARC

vii. Spring wheat seeding rate study – NWARC

viii. Evaluation of spring wheat varieties under dryland conditions at four

off-station sites – EARC

c. Soft White Wheat Trials

i. Western regional soft spring wheat nursery – NWARC

d. Durum Trials (none this year funded by this project)

i. North central Montana off-station spring durum cultivar performance

evaluations – NARC.

ii. Durum cultivar evaluations for the Western Golden Triangle area of

Montana – WTARC

iii. Evaluation of durum varieties under dryland conditions at four off-

station sites – EARC

e. Spring Barley Trials

i. Off-station spring barley variety performance trials in south central

Montana – SARC

ii. Off-station spring barley cultivar evaluations for the Western

Golden Triangle area of Montana – WTARC

iii. Spring barley off-station variety performance trials in Central

Montana – CARC

iv. Evaluation of Hull-less Barley Varieties – EARC

III. Alternative Crop Management (none this year)

IV. Crop Nutrient Management (none this year)

V. Disease Management (none this year)

VI. Insect Management (none this year)

VII. Weed Management (none this year)

VIII. Other studies (none this year)

PROCEDURES:

All projects are replicated either three or four times in randomized designs

appropriate to each location. All reported grain yields and protein are corrected to

a uniform moisture level as reported in the results table for each project. Grain

moisture and test weight are typically measured using Dickey-John moisture

meters. Grain protein is determined using either Perten or Foss NIR technology.

APPLICATION AND RESULTS:

Results are available to the Montana crop producer as well as to the scientific

community. All results from these investigations will be available in CD format by

request and can be found on the web at the Southern Agricultural Research

Center website (http://www.sarc.montana.edu/ ) as well as at the Montana Wheat

and Barley Committee website (http://wbc.agr.mt.gov/).

CURRENT or PENDING BUDGETARY SUPPORT:

All projects included herein are partially supported by MAES funding to include

scientist salaries. Projects included herein are not supported by other grants.

POTENTIAL FOR ENHANCED EXTRAMURAL FUNDING:

Extramural support for research on variety evaluations is difficult to obtain. By

funding this project MWBC helps us build long-term evaluations over multiple

environments. The resultant data sets and documented trends can then be used

to justify more elaborate grant proposals that can gain attraction from other

funding sources.

INCREASED COMPETITIVENESS DUE TO THIS FUNDING:

Much of the research associated with this project is conducted off-station on

cooperating producer's farms. Evaluating crop performance in diverse

environments provides data to help producers make management decisions in

cropping systems, variety selection, crop nutrition, and crop pest management as

well as in general agronomics.

NUMBER OF YEARS MWBC HAS FUNDED

THIS PROJECT:

This Joint Research Center project has been funded by MWBC for 46 years

(1972-2017) starting with a total award of $14,000 in 1972.

OVERALL BUDGET: