Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The 2010 Annual Meeting of SCC-33 and the University Crop Testing Alliance (UCTA) Information Exchange Groups were held Wednesday and Thursday, January 27 and 28, at the Sirata Beach Resort and Conference Center, St. Pete Beach, FL. Bill Bruening, University of Kentucky and Lanny Ashlock, Cullum Seed, served as co-chairs for the meeting. Debra Ahrent of the University of Arkansas handled pre-registration and registration. Debra also serves as treasurer of SCC-33. An informal meet and greet reception was help from 6-8pm on Tuesday 1-26-10 at the Compass Grille at the Sirata Resort. The event was well attended and facilitated early registration and provided an excellent opportunity to meet meeting attendees. Wednesday January 27, 2010

8:00am The meeting was called to order by Bill Bruening, University of Kentucky, Wheat Variety testing. Attending members introduced themselves. Bruening presented the background on how and why SCC-33 and UCTA decided to have a joint meeting, and an overview of the agenda, surveys & folder contents, and topics prepared for presentation for 2010.

8:20 Clarence Watson, Oklahoma State, presented "Cooperative Variety Testing Programs in the Southern Region" outlining the history, objectives, milestones and a few previous topics set forth through SCC-33 meetings. Some topics included preliminary data, statistical practices, experimental design, intellectual property issues, internet and electronic media sources, new and ongoing issues dealing with seed treatments, and the advancements in agriculture and varieties.

8:40 Joe Lauer, Wisconsin, presented Overview of the University Crop Testing Alliance (UCTA) a brief history, function, and goals with topics that included the establishment of an idea exchange meeting, for cultivar testers across states, to collaborate on topics of uniformity, legitimacy, standardization and advancements to improve methods for increasing the value of variety testing programs in the mid-west. The question of How can we serve growers, industry and science? Led discussions of contract testing with private companies, pricing of entries and tests, the use of variance as a parameter in evaluating uniformity of test sites. Also presented and discussed test site selection, statistical criterion for environmental biological and physical disturbances addressing abandoning field experiments and dropping problem reps. Joe finished with Corn Agronomy Programs and Getting the Word Out, a rundown of the corn silage testing program in Wisconsin and working with media sources to publish results.

10:20 Daryl Bowman, North Carolina State, led a discussion Wide vs. Narrow ROW Soybean Plots talking about the interaction of yield and row spacing. Daryl also presented "Throwing Out Plots" covering criteria such as the Dixon test for outliers, in addressing the question of when to discard plots or entire tests.

1:30pm Marcelo Carena presented "Production Challenges in North Dakota", an overview of North Dakota's breeding and variety testing programs, outlining the unique agricultural, spatial and environmental factors of the state presenting issues of uniformity with cooperators and location.

2:00 Jim Dietz, presented "Michigan State Variety Testing" a brief history of the state's agriculture and breeding heritage, with an overview of all the many crop variety testing programs.

2:30 Don Day presented "University of Georgia Statewide Variety Testing" outlining the agricultural commodities, land usage, and the value of crop production, with a look at variety testing programs and objectives.

3:00 Jim Rouse, Iowa State, introduced "Differences in Alpha Level among Programs and Companies" reviewing the effects of different alpha level to the types of error that can occur and the potential costs of those error types. A constructive debate of alpha levels followed.

3:50 Bill Bruening, Don Dombek, and Fred Allen presented "Systemic Insecticide Seed Treatment" summarizing studies that tested yield boost of insecticide treated seed, giving a layperson look at the potential danger of the chemicals used in the treatments and the requirements personal protection equipment. A talk on testing the genetic potential of the seed vs. the seed package as a whole concluded the day's topics.

5:30 meeting adjourned Thursday January 28, 2010

8:00am The meeting was called to order by Lanny Ashlock, presenting "Cullum Seed LLC: Company Profile and Overview" a brief history from startup as a rice seed supplier to the company's expansion partnerships and land increases of present.

8:30 Zingxiao Zhang, Mississippi State, introduced "Efficiency of Data Presentation & Utilization in State Soybean Variety Trials." Using an overview and walkthrough of different variety testing program websites, Lingxiao presented a preliminary model using cross-state OVT data to launch a national database for variety selection, crop management scheduling, and related resources tooled to be used by grower as public benefit. Dr. Zhang requested that anyone interested in this project please email him at lzhang@drec.msstate.edu

9:00 James Thomas, Worldwide SoyTechnologies, presented "Recent Changes and Alliances within the Seed Industry" outlining the evolution of equipment, the shift from public to private varieties, and a few seed companies' history to lead into a current view of the industry from mergers, acquisitions, and alliances.

10:15 Shad Mallady presented "Almaco Product Update" giving a model by model overview of improvements made in Almaco's 2010 product line.

11:00 Bill Bruening presented "Budget Cuts & Sustainability of Variety Test Programs", in light of the economic state of most public universities, addressing the how OVT programs can stay financially afloat. The topic opened the floor for members to share the situation and methods of generating needed revenues or reducing or cutting draining cost, from outside VT testing to seasonally outsourcing technicians and employees to other projects in the University.

11:30 Allen Wilson showed "What's new for HarvestMaster in 2010" giving descriptions of the software updates, new products, field-tested equipment, to the many applications and jobs they serve.

1:00pm Dale Logan, SeedMatrix, introduced "Broad based Online Varietal Comparison Application" providing a personal background, Dale gave a brief history of the development of SeedMatrix and demonstrated the application's potential in comparing varietal differences.

1:30 Rich Mascagni presented "Louisiana State Variety Testing" a look at the background, statistical methods and structure of the OVT programs from the functions of the coordinator/ cooperator levels.

2:00 Stephen Guy introduced "Washington State Cereal Variety Testing - Providing Timely Information to Washington Growers" a glimpse into the wheat growers of the Pacific Northwest and the challenge of Washington's wheat testing program. Stephen shared the climatic and regional differences across locations in the state and the specialized wheat farming practices and a range of OVT data collection use for the wheat growers.

2:40 Lanny Ashlock presented "Inconsistent Performance of Duplicate Entries within a Test" showing the quality assurance checks the companies use for OVT data and the use of duplicates to help make varietal decisions. Lanny concluded using an assortment of OVT publications that overall OVT data is consistent between duplicate entries.

3:10 Bill Bruening led an open discussion. Topics included posting a used equipment forum of SCC-33 webpage, preparing a National or Regional publication addressing uniformity, consistency between OVT programs with a How to read OVT publications directions, and 2011 meeting topics, locations, and collaborations.

3:15 SCC-33 Business meeting 2009 SCC-33 meeting minutes were approved. Awards: The 2009 SCC-33 Outstanding Service Award was presented to Clarence Watson. Clarence has served as SCC-33 administrative advisor for many years and is instrumental in SCC-33's success and annual operation. Treasurer's Report: Treasurer Debra Ahrent presented the Financial Statement reporting as of 1-18-10, a balance of $3,438.44. The Treasurer's Report was accepted and approved. Bruening noted that this figure included all meeting expenses excluding approximately ~$1000 in final meeting costs. A carryover of at least $2000 can be expected. Assessment of Joint Meeting -- Bruening noted that he was pleased with the Sirata meeting space, resort facilities and meals. The group felt that the National meeting was very successful and expressed an interest to continue having official joint meetings every other year. On the off years, the regular, less publicized SCC-33 meeting will continue as usual. New Officer Election: John Kelley of University of Arkansas was elected public sector co-chair for the 2011 SCC-33 Annual Meeting. Mike Hughes of Pioneer Hi Bred was elected private sector co-chair for the 2011 SCC-33 Annual Meeting. If Mike is unable, Greg St. Amour of Direct Enterprises agreed to serve in his place. 4:15 Adjourn On Friday, 1-29-10, the group met at the Orange Groves Winery in St. Petersburg, FL. The group toured the wine making facility, viewed a video and participated in wine tasting. The event provided an interesting alternative use for citrus / tropical crops. An informal lunch was held at the Friendly Fisherman Restaurant in St. John Pass, FL, followed by a sight seeing cruise. This event fostered continued information exchange on a more casual/personal basis. The social event capped off the 2010 SCC-33 meeting.