22 SUCCESS IN SOYBEANbreeding improves yield by approximately one per cent each year, but this rate will have to increase significantly in order to meet projected food demand. To prepare, breeders are reviewing progress and evaluating new technologies that could advance their programs. Istvan Rajcan, professor and graduate coordinator in the Department of Plant Agriculture, has led the University of Guelph’s soybean breeding efforts for the last 25 years. Since there are few written reviews about how soybean breeding programs are run, Rajcan and research associate Mohsen Yoosefzadeh-Najafabadi were inspired to publish a paper that describes public breeding efforts in southern Ontario. “Soybean breeders are mostly dealing with complex traits that are under control by several intrinsic and extrinsic factors, so sufficient information about past and current breeding efforts is required to modify future programs accordingly,” says Rajcan. HOW IT WORKS Guelph’s soybean breeding program, which began in the 1970s, is focused on developing high-yielding, high-seed quality, and diseaseresistant cultivars within the range of 2400 to 2900 crop heat units (CHU). An average of 120 crosses are made annually in growth rooms, and F1 seeds from each cross are harvested in April. (F1 hybrid is a term used in genetics and selective breeding. F1 stands for Filial 1, the first filial generation Celebrating soybean breeding ADVANCING INNOVATION WITH TECHNOLOGY Rebecca Hannam seeds/plants resulting from a cross-mating of distinctly different parental types). The F1 seeds are then planted in growth rooms, and seedlings are transplanted to an irrigated field in Ridgetown. F2 seeds are usually harvested in October and then sent to Costa Rica to produce two generations in a winter nursery, which speeds up the overall process by two years. Once the F4 seed arrives in Canada in the spring, up to 40,000 plants are grown in a nursery in Woodstock. 4,000 to 6,000 F4 plants are selected and planted the following year as F5 headrows. 500 to 700 plots are then selected and planted as F4:6 preliminary yield trials at one location based on maturity. 150 to 200 lines are selected and grown as F4:7 lines in advanced yield trials with three replications in two locations, after which 50 to 70 F4:8 lines are selected and grown in locations across Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba over two years. Breeder seed production begins after the first or second year of Ontario public yield trials and finally results in three to five cultivars being released to the industry per year. BREEDING SUCCESS More than 130 varieties have been released by the University of Guelph since 1970, and many have experienced longevity in the market. OAC Bayfield, which was initially developed by Jack Tanner and Wallace Beversdorf in 1985, thrived for over two decades after it was released by SeCan in 1994. Other important releases like OAC Wallace, OAC Champion, and OAC Kent had OAC Bayfield as a parent, and many of these varieties are still used in breeding programs today. While breeding objectives have varied over time, the productivity of the University of Research GRAIN FARMERS OF ONTARIO'S RESEARCH COMMITTEE TOURED THE SOYBEAN RESEARCH PLOTS AT THE ELORA RESEARCH STATION IN AUGUST.
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