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Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board


Soybeans Today January 1998

From The Chairman...

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Roger Pohlner, chairman
Arkansas Soybean
Promotion Board

 

Dear Arkansas Soybean Producer:

The most significant factor affecting soybean yields is a decision you make before you put a single seed in the ground. It's choosing the right variety. You want to match your soil type, fertility, past disease pressures and other factors with the variety that has the highest yield potential for that particular field.

The Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, has a computer program called SOYVA that allows you to enter key information and, in return, receive a recommendation on which varieties you should consider.

Much of the data used to develop the SOYVA program was collected from the Arkansas Soybean Variety Testing Program. For a reasonable fee, any seed company can enter their varieties in the program. They receive an unbiased evaluation of that variety when it is grown under various conditions. Such information is not only valuable to the seed company in marketing the varieties, the data also provide an extremely valuable service to Arkansas soybean producers.

For the past couple of years, several of the larger seed companies have refused to enter their genetically engineered varieties into the program. As a result, when producers select one of those varieties to plant, the only information they have to aid their decision is the data generated by the company's research.

In 1997, Novartis elected to enter their soybean varieties with the herbicide tolerant gene in the variety testing program, joining Terral, AgriPro, Delta Grow, Delta King, SF Services and Tri-State Delta. I commend these seed companies for their action.

I urge all producers to encourage those companies that have not entered their herbicide tolerant varieties to do so in the future. If we are expected to adopt this new technology, which carries a premium price, we should be given the information we need to make informed decisions.

I would feel much more comfortable if that information came from a known reliable source such as the University of Arkansas Variety Testing Program, and I'm certain other producers feel the same way.

Best wishes for another successful year in 1998.

Sincerely

Roger Pohlner, Chairman

Soybeans Today January 1998
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ATTN: Warren Carter
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Little Rock, AR 72203-0031
Phone: 501-228-1265

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