Updated April 27, 2021:
The University of Missouri’s northern soybean breeding program devotes a considerable amount of time and effort on all stages of variety development each year including crossing, inbreeding and generational advancement, plant row election, preliminary and advanced yield trials, regional and national yield trials, and germplasm and variety release.
During 2020, approximately 100 unique cross combinations with conventional and Enlist E3 were made at the Bay Farm
Research Facility. The hybrid F1 seeds were harvested and immediately planted in Kekaha, HI, during October 2020. The F1 plants were harvested during February 2021 and the F2 seed was planted within a day or two of harvest. The F2 plants will be harvested in May 2021 and the seed will be shipped back to Bay Farm. The F3 plants will be grown at the Bay Farm during summer 2021 and single pods from each plant will be harvested. The F4 plants will be grown for one generation in Ponce, Puerto Rico, to develop progeny rows to be grown in 2022. We will also have a crossing block in Puerto Rico during spring 2021 to enable more efficient and timely germplasm and variety development.
Each year, approximately 1,000 progeny rows are visually selected, and the selected lines will go into preliminary yield
trials across six locations in Missouri including Columbia, Novelty, Rock Port, Corning, Albany, and Portageville. Some of these lines (the MG III material) are also planted in replicated trials at three locations in Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois in collaboration with the soybean breeders at the respective public institutions. The top five to ten percent of lines in preliminary yield trials are advanced to multiple replicate and locations advanced trials, and the best lines are also tested in the USDA northern and southern regional uniform trials which are grown at 15 locations across 20 states and Canada each year.