Program Takes Guesswork Out Of Variety Selection: January 1999 Soybeans Today

Soybeans Today January 1999

Program Takes Guesswork Out Of Variety Selection

Producers don't have to guess which variety will do best in a particular field. They can rely on the results of the University of Arkansas' Soybean Variety Testing Program, which is partially funded by the Soybean Promotion Board.

Don Dombek, U of A Division of Agriculture program director, says the objective of the variety testing program is to generate as much unbiased and useful information as possible about the performance of varieties in Arkansas' diverse environments.

Those diverse test sites include the U of A's Northeast Research and Extension Center at Keiser, the Rice Research and Extension Center near Stuttgart, the Cotton Branch Station at Marianna, the Southeast Research and Extension Center-Rohwer Division and the Vegetable Substation near Kibler. There's also an off-station testing site on Charles Starks' farm in the Red River Valley near Texarkana.

"We have three types of tests," says Dombek. "By far the largest is the commercial cultivar test. These are basically full-season tests using conventional production practices. In 1998, we had 165 entries, Groups IV, V and VI, in this test." He notes that 66 of the 165 entries were Roundup Ready varieties, compared to 14 of 149 in 1997.

"We also have an early planted test, which is closely aligned to the Early Season Soybean Production System," says Dombek. "We had 66 varieties in the early planted test in 1998, including 22 Roundup Ready varieties. They ranged in maturity from 3.8 to 5.3."

"Then we have a new strains test that evaluates the performance of promising new strains from both private companies and public institutions. These tests, which are conducted at Keiser and Rohwer, included 41 entries in 1998."

"That gave us a total of 272 entries in the tests. They came from 24 private seed companies and 14 public institutions, including the University of Arkansas." In addition to the full-season tests, there was a doublecrop test at Keiser that looked at the performance of all the Group IV and V entries following wheat.

Dombek says yield potential isn't the only consideration. "The university team looks at disease resistance, nematode tolerance, plant height, maturity date, shattering and lodging. There are irrigated and non-irrigated tests. Varieties are screened for soil chloride tolerance and sensitivity to metribuzin and propanil drift."

All this information is available at county Cooperative Extension Service offices, but with so many varieties and so many variables, it can be confusing. Dombek recommends using SOYVA, the U of A's computerized variety selection program, to match varieties with fields.

Dombek says, "We realize that farmers are being encouraged to book planting seed earlier and earlier, so we work hard to get the preliminary yield results out as quickly as possible after the test plots are harvested."

The preliminary yield report is followed by a full report on the variety tests and related studies.

Soybeans Today January 1999
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For additional information about any board-related activity contact:

Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board
ATTN: Brandy Carroll
P.O. Box 31
Little Rock, AR 72203-0031
Phone: 501-228-1268

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