The state of statistics in agricultural science

The history of statistics in agricultural research is a history of designed experiments in the basic sciences combined with applications on production agriculture and commodity processing. In agriculture, we deal with the variabilities between and within plantand animal species growing and reproducing in variable environments. Early statistical procedures were primarily concerned with partitioning of variances and hypothesis testing. We continue to use these basic procedures, with many modern updates. The basic statistical toolbox of the agricultural scientist was changed by the computer revolution and is continuing to be changed by advances in experimental designs, computer graphics, and measurement systems. Agricultural scientists are using statistical procedures adapted from engineers, ecologists, and economists in order to deal with the growing problems of analysis and interpretation of more and more data. Problems associated with sampling will continue to grow, especially when dealing with rare or highly variable events, such as insect counts, microorganisms, mycotoxins, or specific metabolites. The statisticians will be asked to provide usable, efficient, understandable, user-friendly procedures to analyze and interpret more and more complex data.