Behnam,

PEST is to simulate damage or harvest events.  If your datasets include
significant damage, you should NOT be using them to build genetic
coefficients - see Dr. Boote's comments.  Think about it - if you have
pest damage or nutrient limitations in your real data, how do you know
which effects are genetic and which are environmental?

Also, get your management files working correctly before you try any
testing - if you have irrigation or fertilizer info entered incorrectly,
you are wasting your time running multiple-year scenarios with bad
info.  As far as soil conditions go, if you can get an extra year of
weather data, you can "set up" your initial soil conditions by running a
year of simulations prior to your experiments.  Just match the
simulations as closely as you can to what really happened.

Look through the manuals, they are on the CD an I believe that there is
a link to them in the help section too - Glance through the table of
contents of all of the manuals then go back and read the ones that
pertain to what you wan to do.  A lot of your questions should be
answered there - it will save you a lot of time.

Best of Luck,

Stu

On 4/24/2011 2:44 AM, Behnam wrote:
> Dear users,
> I am using PEST to calibrate cultivar parameters of MAIZE.
>
> 1) Do I have to change any Ecotype parameters in this process? By
> default, there are only 2 Ecotypes in DSSAT database.
>
> 2) Is it true if I find cultivar parameters different for different
> irrigation treatments? When I used all irrigation treatments, the
> calibration results got worst in comparison to the time I used only 1
> or 2 irrigation treatments.
>
> Best
> Behnam
>
>

--
Stuart Rymph, Ph.D., CCA, PAS
Dairy Nutrition and Technical Services Manager
Land O'Lakes Purina Feed LLC
6063 Beckman Rd.
Mazomanie, WI 53560
(608) 469-8538
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