1) Soybean cultivar releases
In 2020 we had six soybean cultivars approved for release by the CAES Plant Cultivar and Germplasm Release Committee.
2) New RR2Y, LibertyLink, and Conventional High Yielding Soybean Lines
A total of 43 high-yielding RR2Y, conventional and LibertyLink soybean lines were advanced to USDA Southern Uniform Tests/Prelim Uniform Tests in maturity groups 6, 7, and 8. All these lines have resistance to southern root-knot nematode and race 3 of SCN. Based on the performance of these lines in 2020 tests, top performing lines will be submitted for approval of release or advanced to a subsequent year of testing.
3) New herbicide tolerance technologies, RR2 Xtend and Enlist E3
With assistance from Innovation Gateway, we accessed to RR2 Xtend (Bayer) and Enlist E3 technologies (Corteva) in spring 2019. We have made 15 crosses with our best elite lines in the summer of 2019 and are in the process to perform backcrossing these new traits into our top elite lines.
4) Soybean pipeline materials
Over 10,000 rows of lines at different generations were planted for evaluation and selection in 2020.