It is often asked how public breeding programs are relevant in an increasingly competitive private seed industry market. For example, public corn breeding is essentially non-existent due to competition with private companies. However, this awareness can be used to facilitate innovation for both private and public breeding since both entities have different strengths. Private company decisions are often driven by cost and return on investment as demonstrated in the investment in hybrid corn (Griliches, 1957). This means private companies are more susceptible to a changing market. However, public
breeding programs are less vulnerable to changing markets and can provide low cost replacement seed
to growers (Thirtle, 2001). Of greater economic importance are the indirect or social return on investment that public breeding programs make in terms of training new breeders that may eventually work for private companies as well (Thirtle, 2001). In addition, public breeding programs are able to focus on traits that private companies do not have the capacity to research or conduct pre-breeding work for such as: enhanced nutrition, optimizing seed composition, or discovering/stacking novel disease resistances.
Soybean in North Dakota is a relatively young crop and has increased bushels harvested from ~20 million in 1995 to ~200 million in 2022 (NDSC https://ndsoybean.org/soybean-stats/). North Dakota is
also one of the only Midwest states that is still actively increasing soybean acreage (US soybean report, WSRC Austria 2023). However, North Dakota soybean yields are only the 8th highest compared to other Midwest states, with a three-year average of 32 bushels/acre (USDA-NASS 2023). There is
undoubtedly a lot of opportunity in North Dakota, and it will take the efforts of both private and public breeding to increase yields to be competitive with other Midwestern states.
The goal of the North Dakota State University public soybean breeding program is to create superior core germplasm from hybridization, early generation advancement, yield testing, pure seed creation, and finally breeder seed increases for distribution to foundation seed for certified seed creation (Fehr, 1987).

• Creation of superior germplasm including increased yield
• Creation of germplasm with stacked disease resistances
• Creation of germplasm with increased protein and oil.
• Training of graduate and undergraduate students to become plant breeders.

The two main deliverables of the project are the creation of superior germplasm with high yield and diseases resistances necessary for North Dakota. This project also creates a training opportunity for students to become the next generation of plant breeders.

The ultimate goal of the NDSU soybean breeding program is to release high yielding soybean
varieties that are well adapted to North Dakota. NDSU soybean varieties are less expensive than private companies, and therefore, are more accessible to local farmers. This project also creates a training place for students to learn how to become breeders that will be extremely knowledge about
the challenges of breeding and soybean production in the North Dakota environments.