The role of wide-scale testing is the topic of a paper being presented during the Beltwide Cotton Conferences' Cotton Improvement Conference at 4 p.m. Thursday, January 6. Dr. Dawn Fraser, breeder at Delta and Pine Land Company's Atlantic Coast Research Station in Hartsville, SC, conducted the study on the contribution of wide-scale testing.

Fraser explains that "Each year thousands of genotypes, or potential varieties, are evaluated in hundreds of different locations across the Cotton Belt in the hope of identifying and selecting lines with improved yield and fiber quality. We wanted to look at whether certain environments where the genotypic performance is expressed most clearly could be identified. If we could find environments which were also representative of the target market area, then these environments would be closest to ideal."

Fraser used a method of statistical analysis to plot the data. She says, "We were looking for multiple locations that are 'ideal' for selecting for specific fiber traits. In an 'artificial' data set where the same lines were tested over the same locations in two successive years, locations could be identified that were most suitable for selecting for fiber length, uniformity fiber, strength and elongation. In a typical commercial testing program though, environments remain constant but the lines tested change each year. In this scenario, the analysis was not able to identify multiple locations that were consistently ideal for all variables when considered across tests types and maturity groups, although some locations were consistently most ideal for variables such as mic and elongation (early-mid tests) and fiber length, strength and elongation (full season tests)."

Dr. Bill Hugie, D&PL vice president of research, says Fraser's study confirms what breeders have known anecdotally for some time.

"Breeders have known there are differences in the way individual varieties perform in different environments. For that reason, breeders would generally test their varieties at more than one location," Hugie adds. "This study points to the value of testing in the Advance Testing Program D&PL put in place several years ago to move varieties from the early stages of progeny rows toward commercialization. We move varieties through seven stages increasing the numbers of test locations from the individual breeder's locations to test sites around the world. This project provides a of investigating the reliability of our test sites so we can continue to fine-tune the testing program."

Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For almost 90 years, the Company has used its extensive cotton plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop improved varieties. Delta and Pine Land (NYSE: DLP), headquartered in Scott, Mississippi, has offices in eight states and facilities in several foreign countries.