Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

SCC-33 Meeting February 8-10, 2011 Holiday Inn Emerald Beach Corpus Christi, TX Tuesday, February 8 Evening reception hosted by the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Wednesday, February 9 Registration - conducted by SCC-33 treasurer Debra Ahrent, University of Arkansas The meeting began with Welcome and Announcements, by Clarence Watson, Oklahoma State University who gave an overview of SCC-33 and the current status of Multistate Hatch program as well as future scenarios for funding levels. Mike Hughes, Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Don Dombek, University of Arkansas, 2011 co-chairs welcomed the group and initiated personal introduction from the meeting attendees. There were 24 meeting attendees (listed above). Gene Olson, University of Kentucky, presented Forage Variety Testing in Kentucky. Gene gave a detailed presentation on his forage variety testing program covering techniques, equipment and methods for his forage and grazing trials. Bill Bruening, University of Kentucky, discussed Evaluation for Wheat Varieties for Forage and Straw Yield Potential. Bill discussed the justification and methodology for conducting these specialized small grain variety tests. Daryl Bowman, North Carolina State University, presented Forage Variety Testing in Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia and conducted an open discussion on the status state forage testing. It was decided to write a white paper advocating the need for forage variety testing by land-grant institutions. Daryl Bowman would spear head this effort with assistance from Don Dombek. Daryl followed up the forage discussion with a presentations and discussions on Reporting Data Relative to Significance Levels and Horizontal vs. Vertical Blocking of Trials. Eugene Lacefield, University of Kentucky, led a group discussion entitled Spatial Analyses, and primarily discussed how do you know when a test gets too big in size and what to do about this issue. Kim Hurst and Michael Emerson, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, gave a presentation on Soybean Cultivar Disease Screening in Arkansas. They gave a program overview and discussed the techniques used for disease screening for the Arkansas soybean variety trials. Josh Still, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, presented the results from the 2011 Survey of Variety Testing Procedures in the Southern Region. Discussion of posting the detailed results and how to include additional state programs followed. It was agreed that the survey questions will be edited and resubmitted for a later survey with the help of Bill Bruening (small grains) and John Creech (cotton). Mike Hughes, Pioneer Hybrid International, gave an overview of Pioneer and discussed its research structure and its use and participation in state variety testing programs. Bill Bruening, gave an update on the SCC-33 website (http://www.uky.edu/Ag/wheatvarietytest/SCC-33.htm) and discussed the new page, its content and why it was moved from Mississippi State. Reception and dinner provided by Pioneer Hi-Bred International Thursday, February 10 Continental breakfast and refreshments provided by Syngenta. Daryl Bowman, Bill Bruening and Don Dombek discussed Traditional vs. Intensive Management of Wheat. Intensive management was defined by crop input applications. The pros and cons were discussed as well as justification for or against intensive management. Don Boquet, LSU Ag Center presented Green Plant Malady: Factors Contributing to Green Soybean Plants at Maturity. Don discussed the many factors that may play a role in green plant complex. He discussed the interaction between the plant symptoms and varieties, disease, insects, environment and planting date. Rick Mascagni, LSU Ag Center discussed Corn Fertility and fertilizer application techniques and his research findings. James Thomas of Worldwide Soytechnologies received the 2011 Outstanding Service Award for his sustained contributions to variety testing and the SCC-33 organization. Monty Malone accepted the award on his behalf. The Business Meeting was called to order by Don Dombek. Bruening motioned that last year's meeting minutes be accepted as posted on the website. The motion passed. Rick Mascagni, LSU was elected public 2012 co-chair. Marty Hale was elected industry co-chair. Marty was not present to accept or decline the position. In the event that Marty cannot serve as the industry rep, and alternative co-chair will be determined. Debra Ahrent presented the SCC-33 treasurers report. Future meeting sites were briefly discussed. It was also decided that SCC-33 would promote the 2012 meeting as an all inclusive meeting to include all variety testing programs in the country. The plan is to conduct a National Variety Testing Meeting in 2012, to foster new ideas, better meeting attendance and discussion. Adjourn

During the current reporting period, SCC-33 sucessfully established a new web site (http://www.uky.edu/Ag/wheatvarietytest/SCC-33.htm)hosted by the University of Kentucky. The new site has been updated and additional archival information has been posted to the site.

The SCC-33 web site (http://www.uky.edu/Ag/wheatvarietytest/SCC-33.htm) contains linkages to the variety testing websites of many of the participating states where users may obtain state variety testing results and/or publications.