Wheat growers will have the opportunity to compare current varieties and experimental lines in the field during Nebraska Extension’s 2026 Wheat Variety Tours, scheduled across the state in June.
Five tour locations — spanning Jefferson to Box Butte County — will showcase wheat varieties being evaluated through the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Crop Performance Testing Program in partnership with local farmer-cooperators and university farm managers.
Extension specialists will be on-site to discuss performance, disease considerations and management insights. Tour leaders include Cody Creech, professor of agronomy and horticulture, and Amanda Easterly, research associate professor. They will be joined by Katherine Frels, assistant professor and small grains breeder, and Stephen Wegulo, small grains plant pathologist, along with seed industry partners.
Event details, including dates, locations and GPS pins, are available on the Panhandle Research, Extension and Education Center website.
Attendees using GPS coordinates should note that locations may not be exact but will guide visitors near the plots. At most sites, an orange stake marks the first row, and plots will be labeled with variety names about a week prior to each tour date and will remain in place until just before harvest, allowing for visits beyond the scheduled tour dates.
Visitors planning to view plots independently are asked to coordinate in advance with local farmer-cooperators or farm managers. Maps for individual trial locations are available upon request from Creech or Easterly.
2026 Wheat Tours
- June 10 — Jefferson County at Knobel Seeds, 5 p.m. CT
- June 15 — Hitchcock/Red Willow County at Peters Seed Farms, 5 p.m. CT
- June 16 — Perkins County at Stumpf International Wheat Research Center, 9 a.m. MT
- June 17 — High Plains Ag Lab – Cheyenne County at Western Nebraska Community College, Sidney, with lunch, 8 a.m. MT
- June 17 — Box Butte County Irrigated at Cullan Farms Seed, 3 p.m. MT
Previous years’ wheat variety performance data and multi-year summaries are available on the CropWatch Variety Testing page.
