Context. Perennial crop variety selection trials are often conducted over several seasons or years. These field trials often exhibit spatial correlation between plots. When data from multiple assessment times are analysed, it is necessary to account for both spatial and temporal correlation. A current approach is to use linear mixed models with separable spatial and temporal residual covariance structures. A limitation of these separable models is that they assume the same spatial correlation structure for each assessment time, which may not hold in practice.

Aims. This study aims to provide more flexible methods for modelling the spatio-temporal correlation in multi-assessment perennial crop data, allowing for differing spatial parameters for each time, together with modelling genetic effects over time.

Methods. The paper investigates the suitability of two-directional invariant multivariate autoregressive (2DIMVAR1) models for analysis of multi-assessment perennial crop data. The analysis method is applied to persistence data from a pasture breeding trial.

Key results. The multivariate autoregressive spatio-temporal residual models are a significant improvement on separable residual models under different genetic models. The paper demonstrates how to fit the models in practice using the software ASReml-R.

Conclusions. A flexible modelling approach for multi-assessment perennial crop data is presented, allowing differing spatial correlation parameters for each time. The models allow investigation into genotype × time interactions, while optimally accounting for spatial and temporal correlation.

Implications. The models provide improvements on current approaches and hence will result in more accurate genetic predictions in multi-assessment perennial crop variety selection trials.