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CROP BREEDING, GENETICS & CYTOLOGY

Sixty Years of Improvement in Publicly Developed Elite Soybean Lines

Dep. of Agronomy, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN 47907-1150

* Corresponding author (jwilcox{at}purdue.edu)

Publicly supported soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] breeders evaluate their elite breeding lines in cooperative tests across the northern soybean production area of the USA and Canada. These cooperative tests have been conducted for 60 yr, and virtually all publicly released cultivars have been evaluated in these tests. However, the progress made has not been reported. The objective of this research was to determine progress in elite line improvement in soybean adapted to northern soybean production areas across this 60-yr period. Two-year performance data for the three highest-yielding entries in these tests were regressed on years that entries appeared in maturity group (MG) tests across a 60-yr period. Rates of yield improvement in kg ha^-1 yr^-1 were 21.6 (MG 00), 25.8 (MG 0), 30.4 (MG I), 29.3 (MG II), 30.6 MG (III), and 29.5 (MG IV). In general, check cultivars were consistent in performance across years in which the checks were included in the tests. Plant height increased slightly for elite lines in MG I, but decreased significantly for elite lines in MGs II to IV. Plant lodging decreased significantly for elite lines in every MG test except MG I. Seed protein concentration decreased significantly for elite lines only in MG I (-0.29 g kg^-1 yr^-1) and II (-0.27 g kg^-1 yr^-1). Seed oil increased significantly in MG 00 (0.19 g kg^-1 yr^-1) and decreased significantly in MG III (-0.11 g kg^-1 yr^-1). The data demonstrate that soybean breeders have increased seed yield of cultivars by 1.0% yr^-1, while significantly increasing resistance to plant lodging. Rates of yield improvement during the past 20 yr have been equal to or greater than rates of improvement in earlier years.

Abbreviations: MG, maturity group • UTN, Uniform Tests North

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