Printed in Great Britain A neighbour model for field experiments

A neighbour-type model is proposed as an alternative to that of Wilkinson et al. (1983) for the analysis of field variety trials. The model assumes that the varieties are grouped into complete replicates and that the plots within a replicate are side by side. A method for the estimation of the variance parameters is developed as an extension of the procedure commonly used in incomplete block designs. The model is investigated using data from the 166 cereal variety trials studied by Patterson & Hunter (1983). Results show worthwhile gains in efficiency over conventional incomplete block analysis