Simple legumes, complex analyses.

Since starting work at VSNi it’s no surprise to find so many applications of our software, be it GenStat or ASReml, are working within some aspect of agricultural research; projects that range from development of new plants to new herbicides or pesticides. But this isn’t just a race to find the best, most productive type [...]

Stop throwing spaghetti at the wall?

Anyone who loves Italian food is likely to have a strong opinion about the best texture of cooked pasta. But how can you gauge this? And therefore give real, practical cooking tips? Or even know what type of pasta you prefer? Particularly as there are so many different factors affecting the texture of cooked pasta: [...]

National Variety Trials (NVT) program use ASReml to manage large data sets

Any arable farmer or commercial crop grower wants to know their efforts will be worthwhile. Success is measured in various ways, but profitablility and sustainability are key indicators of the success of a farming enterprise. For crop growers, profitability is linked to maximising yield for fixed costs. A key aim is to produce high yields [...]

Microsatellite marking aids rapid chickpea crop improvement.

“…not only the study presented here but also nearly all research studies at ICRISAT use GenStat to meet their design and computing requirements”.
Subhash Chandra is the Head of Bioinformatics & Principal Statistician, at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, or ICRISAT, an internationally renowned, not-for-profit agricultural research organisation. As one of the [...]

Reducing production costs in farming.

“We chose to purchase GenStat as opposed to other packages after careful consideration. Following a trial run we were impressed by how easy to handle the package was. The programme is simply set out and allows users of all levels to easily navigate it”.
Helen Whitney is Technical Co-ordinator at Dalehead Foods. Established in 1969 it [...]

When accuracy, reliability and speed of analyses matters.

“GenStat is well suited to our agricultural applications; much more than any other system we looked at.”
Curtis Lee is President at Agro-Tech, a contract research and development company based in North Dakota. The company conducts privately funded research within the agribusiness and biotech industries.
The Problem
As a consultant, Curt Lee operates in perhaps the most demanding [...]

Using organic principles to create sustainable agricultural and land solutions

Elm Farm - The Organic Research Centre:
In today’s world we can barely open a newspaper or turn on the television without seeing a piece on the problems facing our world, and how we are abusing our planet and environment. But how often do you see something on activities and programs aimed at addressing these [...]

Measuring potential health problems caused by occupational and environmental exposures…..

….from The Institute of Occupational Medicine
GenStat is well known and highly regarded throughout the world in its historical core area of biosciences, and specifically in agricultural research.
“……beautifully simple to program.” Dr Brian Miller
The breadth of statistical analysis covered is well documented on websites, review articles and the like. As are the importance of its [...]

How does water availability affect the growth rate of young trees?

Many readers will be familiar with the common use of computers throughout the forest industry. Forest management involves a great deal of number crunching and computers facilitate analysis of crops, “what if” exercises and, more recently, visualisation and mapping. Computers control harvesting heads, timber cranes and, with GPS, are used in the field down to [...]

Can statistics help animal welfare….

….the Brook think so.

This donkey is seriously suffering with lesions on the spine. Obviously it must be the pack saddle that is causing the sores so let’s add extra padding under its pack saddle to make it better. If we’re lucky this might reduce the problem, but what if the problem is actually more complicated [...]