Yield: Refers to the mass of plant material that is harvested from a crop and is often expressed in tonnes of dry matter per hectare.
Character: A character is the term given to a phenotype attribute of a plant variety that is measured and used in evaluation. For example – flag leaf length.
Cross-over characters: Characters from VCU that can be used for DUS testing and characters from DUS that can also be used for VCU testing.
DUS: This test determines whether a new variety is Distinct from other registered varieties, shows Uniformity in gene expression, and Stability in morphology after propagation.
Machine learning: is a digital technology that uses computer algorithms which learn from data to find novel patterns and structure providing new insight and understanding.
Phenomics: is the study of the diversity of physical and biochemical characters within a species in response to genetic mutation and environmental influences.
Resilience: The ability of a plant variety to maintain or have a minimal decrease in performance of agronomic characters where geophysical and weather conditions are ‘sub-optimal’
Sustainability: Refers to the consistency of agronomic characters, such as yield across a wide range of geophysical and climate conditions
Variety: In this context a plant variety is a legal entity, defined by the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. A variety represents a precisely defined group of plants within a species with specific, measurable characteristics. Describing these characteristics, and how they relate to agriculture, is the role of plant variety testing.
VCU: Value for Cultivation and Use testing evaluates the agronomic performance of a new variety to determine if it shows a significant advantage over existing registered varieties