| Agricultural Experiment Station | |
|
|
|
|
| Cooperative Extension Service | Agricultural Experiment Station |
|
|
| Search | Publications | Jobs | Personnel Directory | Links |
|
AAES Home  Faculty Expertise Directory For Faculty & Staff Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food & Life Sciences Division Home Cooperative Extension Service Home
|
UA4910 — A New Soybean VarietySoybean breeder Penyin Chen describes UA 4910, which is a new high-yielding, indeterminate, maturity group 4.9, conventional soybean variety. It is now the highest-yielding and best adapted conventional, indeterminate, group four variety available for early planting in Arkansas.
This text will be replaced
I’m Howell Medders with soybean breeder Pengyin Chen at the Arkansas Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Fayetteville. Each year, Dr. Chen and his team make about 250 crosses to combine genetic traits of selected parent lines. They evaluate thousands of selections from the progeny of those crosses over several years and end up with a few that have the potential to be released as improved soybean varieties. The most recent one to make it all the way through to release by the Division of Agriculture as a new variety is UA 4910. UA is for University of Arkansas. What does 4910 signify, Dr. Chen? Ten refers to the release year of 2010. And 49 is for Maturity Group 4.9. It replaces an older Group 4 variety because it has higher yield potential and other advantages. It is now the best adapted, and highest yielding, conventional, group 4 variety, recommended for Arkansas. UA 4910 has excellent yield potential. In USDA tests in 12 southern states, and in Arkansas statewide tests, UA4910 yields have been among the highest of all varieties tested. Indeterminate varieties such as UA4910 are preferred for early planting. They grow tall and set clusters of pods along a single stem. And they don’t have many branches. Early planting of soybeans in cool weather usually results in shorter plants, which is a problem with determinate varieties, which are shorter, bushy plants with branches that set pods closer to the ground. UA 4910 is a conventional variety, which means it is not transgenic. More than 90 percent of the soybeans planted in Arkansas are transgenic, herbicide-resistant varieties. They are genetically resistant to “burn-down” herbicides, such as Roundup, that kill virtually all weed species found in a soybean field. This technology allows farmers to use less herbicide for weed control. That is good for farmers, and good for the environment. However, a few of the weeds that survived Roundup treatments each year have a degree of genetic resistance to the herbicide. They crossbred with others, and over several years, a population of resistant weeds has evolved. That’s right. And one of the things farmers are doing now is planting more conventional varieties, rather than herbicide-resistant varieties, so they can use different herbicides for weed control, and stop the growth of herbicide-resistant weed populations. One option is to use different herbicides with Roundup–resistant varieties, but a conventional variety, like UA 4910, is less expensive, and farmers are allowed to save seed from their harvest to plant the next crop. Foundation Seed of UA 4910 is being grown in 2010 to provide a supply for seed growers. To book Foundation Seed for planting in 2011, contact Debbie Ahrent or Ronnie Sherman, who manage the Foundation Seed Program at the Division of Agriculture’s Rice Research and Extension Center, near Stuttgart. The Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board supports the Division of Agriculture’s breeding program, and our seed industry supports the Variety Testing Program that publishes annual performance test results for varieties available to Arkansas producers. |
|
© 2006 |
University of Arkansas • Division of Agriculture |
Mission • Disclaimer • EEO • |