A VOICE IN THE PROCESS By Suz Trusty
Editor’s note: Te “History of NTEP,” the “NTEP Policy Committee Member Manual” and other NTEP documentation, all developed by Kevin Morris, executive director of NTEP, provided much of the background for this article.
Since 1991, Turfgrass Producers International (TPI) has had a voice in the policy and testing processes of the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP). As a not-for-profit organization, NTEP uniquely links the public and private sectors of the turfgrass industry through their common goals of turfgrass development, improvement and evaluation. TPI represents one of those private sectors.
NTEP Begins In the mid-1960s, Dr. Bill Meyer was a private turfgrass breeder in Oregon. “If any breeder wanted to get a cultivar tested, they would have to contact every university turfgrass specialist individually,” says Meyer. Te inefficiency of the process was a frequent topic of conversation with his mentor and friend, Dr. C. R. Funk, turfgrass specialist with Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, at that time. 1968, Dr. Funk, in conjunction with other leading turfgrass specialists in the Northeast, created a sound scientific structure for a cooperative trial to evaluate Kentucky bluegrass at nineteen locations in the northeast and central U.S. Tere were 43 entries, split between commercially available cultivars and experimental lines.
Meyer says, “Tat first regional trial was completed in 1972, and went so well additional trials were discussed. Dr. Funk was on one of the first committees for this, and so was I. We decided we should have a coordinated test every five years to put in a different species.” A second trial was launched that fall.
Te United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had previously established four regional Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) committees: Northeast, Southern, North Central and Western. J. J. (Jack) Murray, USDA research agronomist, and the agency’s only full-time turfgrass scientist, based at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Beltsville, Maryland, worked with those committees and had coordinated the trial programs. Beltsville was one of the trial sites.
Morris reports, “In June of 1975, during a regional meeting in Beltsville, fourteen of the 1972 trial evaluators participated in a workshop to discuss standardization of data collection methods. Considerable discussion
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developed on the use of a standard 1-9 rating scale with 9 being highest quality turf, best disease resistance, finest leaf texture, and best genetic color. Afterward, participants moved outside to rate individually three replications of fourteen selected entries in the 1972 regional test. Ratings were collected on turfgrass quality, density, percent ground cover, color and leafspot damage and were then statistically analyzed by a USDA statistician. Results of the statistical analysis indicated that the evaluators varied their ratings significantly for all five variables. Evaluators then went back out to the field to further discuss the ratings and make suggestions on improving rating methods. Tese discussions led to a refinement of the system that eventually became the NTEP rating system. Te group also realized that the interaction allowed them to better understand the subjective nature of turfgrass field plot scoring and helped them to be more consistent with each other.”
Following the first two successful trials, a regional tall fescue trial began in the southern U.S. in 1978. In 1980, a national Kentucky bluegrass test was organized, again with Jack Murray coordinating the project from his Beltsville office as a function of the USDA.
Morris reports, “Te initial response was overwhelmingly favorable. Researchers and extension educators found the tests invaluable in learning about commercially available varieties and new experimental selections. Seed companies and plant breeders could quickly learn where grasses performed best and under what management levels. Consumers liked the convenience of one source for unbiased variety information. Also, locating the plots at mainly state university locations allowed them to be viewed by many people at field days. To see grasses growing side-by-side in field evaluations became very popular among the end-users in the turfgrass industry.
With the success of the 1980 National Kentucky Bluegrass Test, NTEP decided to coordinate a national perennial ryegrass test in 1982 and set up an entry fee structure that helped NTEP hire a full-time technical coordinator and is now the basis for NTEP operations. With the collection of funds, it was necessary to establish a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, thus NTEP was officially launched.”
Kevin Morris was hired in 1982 as that technical coordinator, NTEP’s first paid employee. Te others had been USDA employees, using that paid time to coordinate the trialing and analyze the data. Officially, NTEP is a cooperative effort between the non-profit National Turfgrass Evaluation Program, Inc., and the USDA, headquartered at BARC.
TPI Turf News September/October 2018
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