Updated March 21, 2022:
Our Objectives were: 1) Develop of soybean varieties with >7% sucrose and lower RFO’s (1-2%) that results in an increase of ME up to of 100 kcal per pound of meal; 2) Support value-enhanced meal, value-capture, and market development using data science methods.

There are different genes and alleles involved on these traits, therefore different combinations are always valuable. Each team focus on its environment’s factors, such as temperature, light, soil and rain conditions, but we are also focused on developing varieties that can be adopted in a range of environments, focusing on maturity groups MGI-V. For that purpose, we are working on stability and adaptability experiments, so that we can 1) understand how the sucrose and RFO’s content respond to different environments; 2) Identify germplasms that are better for these traits for a wider range of experiments.
In the current stage all teams have finished harvesting and are analyzing data. Advances to regional and uniform trials may occur in January/February. Winter nurseries and green houses have already been planted so that the breeding pipelines will keep on track.

Studies of the new low RFO genotypes show that the ultra-low RFO trait can be combined with high oleic oil traits for soybeans with improved meal and oil.