Identifying mega-environments for hard red winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) production in Texas

Although plant breeding programs can vary in operations and objectives, all must contain high performing germplasm and diverse testing environments. Additionally, these elements must be well understood in order for the program to be successful. The purpose of this research was to investigate Texas A&M (TAM) hard red winter wheat variety trial locations and germplasm. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of the environments and germplasm by utilizing yield data from 2008 to 2012 advanced variety trials and biplot analysis. Results revealed high significant differences ( P < 0.0001) amongst environments, varieties, and variety-by-environment interaction. Three mega-environments within Texas were identified as the High Plains, Rolling Plains, and Blacklands/South Texas and several environments were found to produce high yields each year. ‘Duster’ (PI 639233) was found to be the highest yielding and most stable variety across environments, in this limited set of varieties; while ‘TAMW-101’ (CItr 15324) was the lowest yielding and unstable.