Plant Varieties

Facts about Plant Varieties
  • In agriculture, a variety is a plant of a given species that has been selected and cultivated, in order to produce specific characteristics which, meet man’s needs.
    • Wheat for grinding into flour
    • Barley for malt
  • It is the same as a breed in livestock
    • Aberdeen Angus for beef
    • Holstein for milk
Harvesting Variety Trials
Quick Science facts:
 Plant Variety trials
These are proper science….
Scientist want to find which variety is best.
Variety is the variable they want to change.
They want to measure the OUTPUT variable = YIELD
They need to make this a FAIR TEST by controlling the variables…
So they want to control all the INPUT or INDEPENDANT variable that could affect the yield:
– Soil
– Weather
– How Planted
– Fertiliser
– Disease control
Part of doing this is to replicate there trials to allow for soil type, aspect etc
They then measure the OUTPUT or DEPENDANT variable = Yield
The science of variety trials

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Below is presentation which gives more details about cereals grown in the UK.