Using single-replicate on-farm tests to enhance cultivar performance evaluation

Release of mediocre and interior cultivars can have costly and deleterious consequences for breeders, crop improvement associations, and growers. Multilocational testing of new cultivars in replicated small-plot trials over several years has traditionally been used to screen new cultivars prior to release. Single-replicate on-farm tests (SROFTs) of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars were conducted by eastern Washington growers from 1990 to 1992 to compare with the results obtained from replicated small-plot trials. The comparison of interest was the risk of releasing inferior barley cultivars and the similarity of cultivar response in the two testing systems [...]