Common use of Material and Methods Clause in Contracts

Material and Methods. Objective 1: Hybrid adaptation and evaluation Experiments will be conducted at Amarillo (irrigated), College Station (rainfed and irrigated), east Texas (China) (rainfed), and the Rio Grande Valley (Monte Alto) (irrigated). In each experiment, most advanced materials from the TAMU-Ceres biomass and sweet sorghum program will be planted in small plots (min. of 4 rows × 15’). Plants will be grown in 30-inch rows (Amarillo, College Station and China), or 40-inch rows (Monte Alto), respectively. Initially seeding rates for the different regions will be based on conventional forage sorghum guidelines. The fertilization requirement will be estimated based on the difference between nutrient measured in deep soil samples (N: 0’—3’; P, K, Micronutrients: 0-8”) and the plant requirement estimated by yield goal. Weed control will be atrazine applied preplant or early post emergence. Experiments requiring irrigation at Amarillo, College Station, and Monte Alto will be furrow irrigated. Insect control measures will be taken as warranted by pest pressure. At College Station, China, and Monte Alto all sorghum plants will be harvested for the first time when the head-producing hybrids are in the soft-dough growth stage. Thereafter a ratoon crop will be grown and all sorghum plants will be harvested when the head-producing plants reach the soft-dough growth stage for the second time (dependent on growing conditions and hybrid maturity, a third crop will be harvested at Monte Alto). At Amarillo, due to is shorter growing season, it is likely that only one harvest will be performed in late September. Agronomic data (such as plant height, lodging, biomass production, and plant moisture) and compositional data (analyzed at the TAMU sorghum quality lab for the biomass hybrids and sucrose yield and concentration for the sweet sorghums and nutrient removal of both the sweet and biomass sorghums) will be collected at all locations. Experimental design will be a randomized complete block with 4 replicates. Data will be subjected to ANOVA. Objective 2: Plant populations Experiments will be conducted at Amarillo (irrigated), College Station (rainfed and irrigated), China (rainfed), and Monte Alto (irrigated). With the exception of plant populations, agronomic practices will be as described for objective 1. In this study we will evaluate the effect of varying plant populations on the two most promising biomass sorghums and the two most promising sweet sorghums developed by the TAMU-Ceres program. Plant populations tested are 40,000, 60,000, 80,000, 100,000, and 120,000 plants per acre. Agronomic and quality data will be gathered as described in objective 1. Experimental design will be a randomized complete block with 4 replicates. Data will be subjected to ANOVA and regression analysis.