Climate change and unexpected weather make it more difficult for farmers to
predict yield and yearly income due to the highly variable response of currently
available varieties and hybrids. Soybean varieties specifically bred, developed,
and selected by breeders for Virginia will perform better under Virginia’s ever-changing
weather conditions. Consequently, commercial soybean cultivars
released by private companies may be poorly adapted to Virginia since Virginia
is not their breeding selection location. The long-term goal of Virginia Tech’s
public soybean breeding program is to release superior cultivars to fulfill the
growers’ need and reduce their seed cost in order to increase their farming
income.
We have completed the first five-year breeding projects since I started in 2013,
and now we are on the 5th year of the new five-year objectives that are 1.
Develop high-yielding, herbicide-tolerant and conventional soybean cultivars
and germplasm adapted to the climatic and edaphic conditions and cultural
practices in Virginia as the priority breeding objective. 2. Develop superior
varieties and germplasm with strong disease package, particularly soybean cyst
nematode, root knot nematode and purple seed stain. 3. Emphasize
development of early maturity groups (MG IV and early MG V), and start MG III
soybean varieties and germplasm. 4. Educate and train undergraduate and
graduate students in crop breeding.
The maturity groups that Virginia soybean farmers grow tend to be early, so our
focus is still maturity IV and early V but are adding late III. While genetically
engineered seeds are still the major need, there is increased demand of
conventional cultivars. Very few VA growers produce high oleic soybeans, so we
will not have desired fatty acids as one major objective. We still carry existing
high oleic breeding lines, though. Disease profiles, particular soybean cyst
nematode, root knot nematode, and purple seed stain, have been actively added
into the breeding program as climate change also alters biotic stress pressure in
Virginia. Therefore, we will continue the emphasis of GE and early maturity
groups, and we also emphasize conventional, late III, and disease resistance into
the next five-year objectives.
With the lead of the soybean breeder, Dr. Bo Zhang, and the joint effort of
soybean breeding and extension, we look forward to these outcomes 1) New,
early mature GE and conventional soybean varieties with disease packages bred
by VT that will be competitive with private cultivars in Official Variety Tests and
with public varieties in USDA Uniform tests, and 2) Graduate and undergraduate
students that are equipped with field and molecular breeding experiences. These
outcomes will have a positive impact on the soybean industry by timely
providing VA soybean growers new and improved cultivars with desirable traits,
thus, increasing their on-farm income.