End of the Season, End of an Era

On Monday we harvested our last field trial at the Hancock Research Station, marking the end of the 2014 field season for the breeding program.  One of the key changes we made this year was to group all Year 4+ breeding lines from the same market category into a single trial, rather than evaluating the Year 4 and Year 5 cohorts separately (and lumping all market types together).  The biggest trial was our chip trial at Hancock with 229 entries and 401 plots, followed by the fry processing trial containing 100 entries and 221 plots (also at Hancock). Our fresh market trials were subdivided into russet, yellow, and red categories, and portions of these trials were replicated on commercial farms in Wisconsin.

lance_agray_2014

One of the highlights from 2014 was the success of our crossing program. More than 500 cross-combinations were made, with a focus on elite x elite crosses to maximize the probability of finding progeny with commercial potential. We also enriched our breeding populations for PVY resistance by “backcrossing” PVY-resistant chip and russet breeding lines to elite types.

crossing2014_2

On a bittersweet note, 2014 marks the end of Bryan Bowen’s career with the breeding program.  More than twenty years ago, Bryan moved to Rhinelander to manage the UW research station and has led the transformation of that facility into an indispensable resource for the breeding program.  I am very grateful for his mentoring during my first year on the job.

Bowen_lastYear3plot