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Scientists Seek High-Yield Soybeans
The soybean industry an
ticipates world markets for 2
billion bushels of beans by 1985,
nearly double the present
demand.
This unprecedented demand is
challenging growers to plant
larger acreages of soybeans and
to examine present production
techniques. To help growers
achieve advances in production,
scientists at the U.S. Regional
Soybean Laboratory, Urbana,
111., are cooperating on a broad
spectrum of research with the
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Serving the Agricultural Community
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Illinois Agricultural Experiment
Station. Research at the
Laboratory, administered by
ARS, the USDA’s Agricultural
Research Service, constitutes
concentrated team approach to
getting answers to the question:
How can we step up soybean
yields to match increasing world
demands?
Nitrogen Utilization
One puzzle to be solved is how
to improve nitrogen utilization.
Plant physiologist James E.
Harper says about 400 pounds of
nitrogen are required to produce
a 70 bushel per acre soybean
crop. But his research, involving
both soil plots and outdoor
hydroponic units, shows that
neither nitrogen fertilization nor
nitrogen-fixing bacteria alone
can meet the legume’s need for
this element at anticipated yield
levels. Normally, symbiotic
fixation can provide, about 100
pounds of fiitrogeh per acre;
however, high levels of nitrate
fertilization inhibit fixation.
Accordingly, Dr. Harper is
orienting his research toward
enhancing the compatibility of
the two systems- of nitrogen
utilization. Soybean plants lose
some ability to take up and use
nitrate at the end of the growing
season - a condition which favors
maintaining symbiotic fixation
for higher yields. Perhaps some
new form of nitrogen fertilizer
may be found that is less
inhibitory to symbiotic fixation.
An alternative may be to seek
strains of nitrogen-fixing bac
teria that tolerate high rates of
nitrogen fertilization.
Nutrients and Lodging:
Improving the crop’s ability to
use nutrients may intensify
another barrier to higher yields -
lodging. Agronomist Richard L.
Cooper, research leader of the
Laboratory, found that plants
affected by early lodging form
fewer soybean seeds than do
those which escape lodging.
How lodging affects yield is not
fully understood, but evidence
points to reduced light-use ef
ficiency. When lodging occurs at
early pod set, a highly organized
crop canopy is disrupted, causing
light to be distributed less
uniformly over the total leaf area
because of increased mutual
shading of leaves. Moreover, the
older leaves get more light while
many younger, more
photosynthetically active leaves
become shaded. Dr. Cooper
suggests that lodging may also
lessen yields by stimulating
terminal growth and excessive
branching at the expense of seed
set. Developing semi-dwarf
varieties may provide a solution.
Soybean breeders, taking a cue
from wheat and rice breeders,
are at work developing semi
dwarf soybeans that will be high
yielding as well as resistant to
lodging. In other research, Dr.
Cooper is investigating the ef
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 5,1974
fectiveness of 7-inch rows and low
plant populations in preventing
lodging. Adequate weed control
will be essential for insuring
higher yields with narrow rows.
Weeds and Yields:
In research on weed ecology,
data on soybean yields are being
collected from plots where crops
and herbicide treatments have
been rotated since 1964:—This
long-term project, funded by ARS
as a cooperative agreement with
the University of Illinois, is led by
weed scientists, Fred. W. Slife of
the Illinois Agricultural Ex
periment Station. Scientists are
also compiling information on
weed yields, weed seed content of
the soil, and herbicide residues -
plus their effects on nematodes
and other small animal life in the
soil.
Effect of Sunlight:
Plant physiologist William L.
Ogren, is probing the secrets of
photosynthesis in hopes of in
creasing soybean yields (AGR.
RES., Sept. 1971, p. 8). Dr. Ogren
points out that soybeans, com
pared with plants like corn,
sorghum and sugarcane, are
inefficient users of sunlight.
Photosynthesis in the soybean is
retarded by a process called
photorespiration wherein the
plant, in the presence of light and
abundant oxygen, breathes out
some carbon dioxide (CO2) that
had previously been incorporated
in sugars.
Dr. Ogren is trying to develop
nonphotorespiring soybean
plants by applying radiation and
other nutagenic agents to seeds.
If he succeeds in modifying the
enzyme that triggers the
changing of CO2 into sugars and
vice versa, soybean yields could
theoretically increase by about 50
percent.
Content of Beans:
Chemical composition,
especially oil and protein content,
is an important consideration in
developing new soybean
varieties. Chemist Orlang A.
Krober supervises the annual
analysis of 8,000 to 12,000 seed
samples, mostly in support of
Hhiforpi tests in a soybean
breeding program which the U.S.
Regional Soybean Laboratory
coordinates with several State
Agricultural Experiment
Stations.
He is also developing an ex
perimental infrared reflectance
method for determining protein,
oil, and moisture content of
soybeans. This method may
expand the scope of chemical
research in breeding programs
and may enable growers to be
(Continued On Page 15)
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