To develop high-yielding group IV and V soybeans profitable for Missouri farmers and for licensing to other entities for sale in other states. The goal of this project is to continue developing and releasing high yielding group IV and V, conventional and herbicide tolerant, pest resistant, and stress tolerant soybeans providing Missouri farmers choices of profitable, lower cost alternative varieties for their farm operations. Emphasis will be placed on varieties adapted to southern Missouri and the southern USA.

The objective of this research is to develop new soybean varieties for the Missouri Delta region and other Mid-South
environments. Specific objectives are breeding for higher yields, quality traits, and disease and nematode resistance. This
soybean breeding program is housed at the University of Missouri Delta Center in Portageville, Missouri. Key areas of
focus include the development of varieties with SCN and Root Knot nematode resistance, frogeye leaf spot resistance and, of course, yield. This is the core funding for Dr. Chen's program.

Disease resistant and stress tolerant varieties are the most economical means to reduce yield losses to diseases and other stresses such as flooding and salt.

Updated April 27, 2021:
Despite the challenge of COVID-19 throughout the crop season in 2020, we were able to have a full-scale breeding
program and things were pretty much on track. We got hit, as expected, multiple times throughout the growing season
by dicamba off-target movement. Fortunately, we had both Xtend and RR2 checks in every test so that we were able
make meaningful comparisons and selections. Overall, we had approximately 160 acres of research for breeder seed
increases, demonstrations, purifications, 36 UT lines, 250 AYT lines, 2,500 PYT lines, 30,000 progeny rows, 300 winter nursery populations, and 300 crossing block. The RR2 check averaged 70-90% of the Xtend checks across the farm and planting dates. We selected our lines using the threshold of >100% RR2 check and >80-90% of the Xtend checks depending on the maturity groups.

In 2020, we released 5 conventional—1 RR1, 1 RR2, and 1 high oleic ( HO)— lines as cultivars. Foundation Seed program grew two released MG-4 lines for increase. We grew other released lines for breeder seed increase and produced 8-20 units of seed each for commercialization in 2021. We entered 18 released and to-be released lines in state variety trials across 15 different states in 2020. Yields of these lines were comparable to the popular commercial varieties and several lines did well in several states. We entered 36 lines in the USDA Uniform Tests and our lines ranked well on top in all maturity groups.

We have approximately 300 breeding populations being advanced in Costa Rica and Puerto Rico. We made approximately 300 new crosses and they were sent to winter nurseries for generation advancement, and breeding lines will come back in 2022. We are also in the process of converting eight high-yielding lines to E3 and three other lines to Xtend. This is done by alternating greenhouse, field, and winter nursery backcrossing and may take two years to complete.

Breeding high yielding, broad adaptation, disease resistant, stress tolerant, conventional and herbicide tolerant soybeans will offer growers an array of options to fit their farming operations. Productive, group IV and V herbicide tolerant and conventional soybeans with resistance to major diseases will improve profits for southern Missouri farmers.