How Good are Alfalfa Variety Trials?
A Question of Ethics and Accuracy

Thad H. Busbice
Great Plains Research Company, Inc.
3624 Kildaire Farm Road
Apex, NC 27502

Recommendations are made, alfalfa varieties are chosen, and millions of pounds of alfalfa seed are sold based on alfalfa trial data of questionable value. Alfalfa trials are subject to fraud and often contain large experimental errors.

Fraud in variety testing can occur when unbiased sampling is not practiced. Clever ways of rigging alfalfa trials are as follows:

  1. Entering selected sample (F1 hybrid or early generation) that is known to g