This effort uses a winter nursery in Chile for growing maturity group 4 progeny rows and reselection rows to support the transition into 80% maturity group 4 commodity variety development by 2021. The University of Arkansas soybean breeding program has been providing high-yielding maturity group 5 cultivars at low costs to growers, but it needs to rapidly expand the footprint in early maturities. Using a winter nursery for progeny rows enables breeders to perform two cycles of selections on a given calendar year, thus reducing the number of years it takes to bring maturity group 4 soybean varieties to the market.
Key Benefactors:
farmers, agronomists, extension agents, soybean breeders, seed companies