Oklahoma State University has released the latest results from its 2026 wheat variety trials, providing producers with performance data collected from field experiments conducted across the state throughout the growing season.
The trials tested between 20 and 55 cultivars at around 20 field experiments to deliver information on available wheat cultivars that might be well-adapted to Oklahoma, said Dr. Jayson Lusk, vice president and dean of OSU Agriculture. The program is funded by the Oklahoma Wheat Commission and the Oklahoma Wheat Research Foundation.
Challenging season tests variety resilience
This year’s producers navigated a challenging season with a prolonged drought, warm winter and early spring, said Dr. Amanda Silva, OSU Extension small grains specialist. Challenges like these provide opportunities to observe differences in resilience among varieties.
“Years like this help us separate varieties that are broadly adapted and resilient from those that perform well only under favorable conditions,” Silva said. “No single year tells the whole story. Multi-year data help growers identify varieties that can consistently perform well across a wide range of environments rather than those that excel only in a specific season.”
The trials include multiple production systems, such as standard, intensive, grain-only and dual-purpose management. Throughout the trials, researchers collect data on traits including yield, protein concentration, disease resistance, plant height, maturity and other agronomic characteristics that become evident throughout the growing season.
New phenotyping technology introduced
A new tool developed this year is the Wheat Phenotyping Cart, a field-based platform equipped with multiple sensors to rapidly collect detailed measurements from wheat plots. The cart was developed through a collaboration between the OSU Wheat Improvement Team, the OSU Crop Physiology and Small Grains Extension program and the OSU Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering.
“The cart combines several advanced sensing technologies, including cameras, crop reflectance sensors, canopy temperature sensors and GPS,” Silva said. “The goal is to generate objective, high-throughput measurements that complement traditional field observations and accelerate variety evaluation and improvement efforts.”
More than 70 percent of all wheat acres in Oklahoma are planted with varieties developed at OSU, including 43 varieties commercialized by the OSU Wheat Improvement Team since 2000. Wheat is the top crop in Oklahoma and accounts for 20 percent of human calorie intake.
