Now Available: Winter Wheat Variety-Disease Database

We have recently completed the development of a Winter Wheat Variety by Disease Database (version 1.0) based on results from the 2009 Winter Wheat Performance Trials in Wisconsin. The goal of this database is to assist growers in variety selection, especially regarding how these varieties compared against different diseases commonly seen in Wisconsin. This database will continue to be updated annually.

Within this database, varieties can be sorted based on their combination of disease response and yield performance. At each location, every variety has been given a score from 1-4 for each disease:

- 1 = high yield, low disease
- 2 = high yield, high disease
- 3 = low yield, low disease
- 4 = low yield, high disease

These scores are based on rankings of yield and disease response. Each variety was ranked as either high yield (top 50% of varieties for that location) or low yield (bottom 50% of varieties for that location) and low disease (top 50% of varieties for that location) or high disease (bottom 50% of varieties for that location). A word of caution...the use of “high” and “low” in this context are relative terms. These are meant to describe a variety in the top or bottom half of varieties within a given location. These designations should be interpreted carefully; if the overall level of a disease was low at a location, then even the variety ranked worst for that disease might not have had very high levels of disease.

Before using the database, read “Using the Excel Database: Background and Instructions,” which describes the presentation of the data and the use of the “sort” function in Excel.

After looking at the instruction file, open the Winter Wheat Variety-Disease Database. The “sort” feature described in the instructions can be used to look at which varieties perform best against certain diseases, or to look at the performance of specific varieties.

Questions about how to use the database can be addressed to either Paul (Email: esker@wisc.edu) or Karen Lackermann (lackermann@wisc.edu).