Ontario, Canada
August 31, 2007
Source:
Ontario Soybean Growers
Cereal crop variety selection is
an important part of fall planning. A new web-based tool will
give producers the tools to select their varieties by production
traits and geographical location at the click of a mouse.
GoCereals.ca, a web-based
tool developed by the Ontario Cereal Crops Committee (OCCC) is
an extension of the traditional performance trial fact sheet
published by OMAFRA
and can be found at
www.gocereals.ca.
"By putting this information on the Internet, the attributes of
each cereal variety can be compared and analyzed in more
flexible ways," says Martin Harry, Chair of the Oat and Barley
Council. "Varieties can be listed by zone or compared head to
head by attributes important to the farm like yield and Fusarium
resistance."
A similar online tool is available for soybeans at
GoSoy.ca created by the
Ontario Oil and Protein Seed Crop Committee for their annual
performance trial data. The result for soybeans has been
successful uptake by many web savvy soybean producers.
There are 46 varieties of winter wheat, 23 varieties of spring
wheat, 20 varieties of oats and 29 varieties of barley in the
2007 cereal crop performance trials. Researchers have had access
to the GoCereals.ca
website throughout the summer to record variety performance
data. On August 29th this data became public for producer
analysis of winter wheat and 2007 spring wheat, oat and barley
data are scheduled for publication on November 8th.
Data can be currently viewed and sorted in two different ways.
Varieties can be view by geographic region or "zone" or selected
individually for up to five head to head comparisons. The data
available on each variety
includes: test weight, winter survival, lodging, height, heading
date, and disease resistance.
This tool will not only benefit grain producers but researchers
from across the province recording variety performance data.
Researchers can record information directly within the website
throughout the growing season. The OCCC has access to the
information for review and sign-off prior to the data becoming
publicly available.
"The process of producing this information has become
streamlined and will shorten the time required to get the
information in the hands of producers," says Peter Tuinema,
Chair of the OCCC. "This is the ultimate goal of the OCCC's
performance trial work."
Funding for this project was received from the Ontario Oat and
Barley Council, the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board,
the OCCC and the CORD IV research program. |
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