•IS—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Mar. 2.1974
High-Performance Soybeans - A Few Years Away
FINDING the answer to
high-performance soybeans
is like finding a cure for the
common cold. It isn’t easy.
But Just like the cold,
researchers in education and
industry are working at full
speed to ferret out the
mysteries of superior
soybean production.
Because soybeans are
naturally self-pollinating,
attempts at developing
commercial hybrids have
been unsuccessful. Im
provements through genetic
methods cannot progress in
the soybean as fast as they
have in seed corn since
crosses must be
meticulously done by hand
on fragile flowers.
So agronomists are
beginning to organize in a
unified effort to explore
alternate routes to the
distant destination of the
improved soybean. The
National Soybean Research
Coordinating. Committee, a
group of university scientists
involved in soybean work,
has recently banded together
to set research priorities and
to prevent duplication of
effort among their own
ranks.
Funds for research are
coming from government, to
the tune of $1,000,000 to be
dispensed through two
agencies of the USDA; from
industry-related groups,
such as die National Soybean
Crop Improvement Council
which is providing $200,000
toward the effort; and from
commercial seed companies
that are sinking untold
millions into their own long
range soybean research
programs.
Educators at Minnesota,
lowa State, Illinois, North
Carolina State, Wisconsin,
Purdue and Arkansas have
been given grants from the
National Soybean Crop
Improvement Council for
two-year programs that may
give further answers to the
questions of:
What is the most practical
method of controlling pod
set?
How do root charac
teristics affect the growth
process?
How do carbon and
nitrogen balances affect
soybean yields?
Can the protein content of
the soybean be improved
through genetic means?
Is the rate of nutrient
absorption by the roots a
limiting factor in soybean
growth?
While substantial basic
research has been done by
educators at land grant
universities, many com
mercial seed producers have
also been exploring totally
new ground.
“With the recent rise in the
significance of soybeans as a
cash crop to the farmer and
a food source to the world,
many companies are putting
a greater emphasis on
soybean research than they
have in the past,” says
Robert Strosnider, regional
research
manager
Asgrow Seed Company.
According to Strosnider, his
company has recently
geared up its plans for
controlled expansion in the
soybean marketplace.
Research, production,
quality control and
distribution plans all must be
coordinated,
Strosnider. But he em-
phasizes that “it may be four
or five years before any truly
significant improvements
over the certified varieties
or blends of the certified
varieties will be on hand."
“Our objective is to have
signifcantly improved
soybeans for sale in all
maturity ranges as soon as
possible," says Dr. John
Schillinger, Asgrow's
soybean project leader.
Schillinger is
spearheading Asgrow’s
program at research farms
in Ames, Iowa; Sun Prairie,
Wisconsin; Oxford, Indiana;
FTC Scrutinizing
Egg Industry Ads
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating a series of
advertisements, sponsored by the egg industry, that disavow
a relationship between eating eggs and developing heart
disease.
The commission expects to decide within a few months
whether to proceed against the industry for “unfair and
misleading” advertising, Richard Herzog, director of the
commission’s Division of National Advertising, said that in
light of the importance of the matter, he had directed his
staff “to investigate the matter thoroughly and with
dispatch.”
At issue is the claim made in three industry-sponsored
advertisements, published in two national newspapers, that
“there is absolutely no scientific evidence that eating eggs in
any way increases the risk of heart disease.”
Two organizations, the American Heart Association and
Action for Safety and Health, a Washington-based legal
action organization, have filed complaints with the FTC,
challenging the truth of the ads.
The complaints call upon the federal agency to file a cease
and-desist order, to obtain an immediate injunction to block
further such ads and to require “corrective” ads telling
consumers how they have been misled.
Should such a case come to trial, it is likely to be an ex
plosive airing of a long-simmering controversy over the
relationship between the consumption of high - cholesterol
foods and the risk of heart disease.
The yolk of eggs is the most concentrated source of
cholesterol among commonly eaten foods. One largejegg yolk
contains approximately 275 milligrams of cholesterol, or 85
per cent of the amount recommended for daily consumption
by the American Heart Association, The National Academy
of Sciences and other leading health organizations.
This recommendation is based on a variety of scientific
studies that indicate that consumption of large amounts of
cholesterol-containing foods raises the amount of cholesterol
in the blood and that a high level of cholesterol in the blood
enhances the risk of heart disease.
for
says
Bridgeton, New Jersey;
Delray Beach, Florida, and
San Antonio, Texas.
“Of course, we can grow
several generations in one
year in southern climates,"
says Schillinger. "After
enough parent material is
produced in Florida, we then
move north and grow the
stock in the various maturity
areas where they eventually
will be grown.
Asgrow, along with other
commercial seed producers,
will encounter the same
hurdles in the race for a truly
improved soybean variety.
Superior genotypes are
being developed. Although
the process is slow, im
proved varieties will be
available in a few years.
Disease and insect
resistance can be identified
in certain germplasm, but
these problems are more
localized and a variety that
is excellent in one area may
not be suitable in a neigh
boring state.
Work is being conducted to
improve yields through more
efficient use of soil fertility,
especially potassium.
The germplasm base used
in most soybean varieties
Five big reasons why, if you live or
our new Penn Hill office offers y
“For ail kinds of con
sumer loans, we’re fast and
have terms that’re the best
around.” —Amos Myers,
Manager, Penn Hill offim
today is somewhat narrow.
About eight parents are
responsible for the majority
of all soybeans grown in the
U.S., according to
Schillinger. He is quick to
add that the base is not so
narrow that there is
significant danger of a
recurrence of a disease
fiasco such as the Southern
Com Leaf Blight outbreak of
1971 which resulted from the
majority of the seed coming
from susceptible Texas male
sterile cytoplasm.
“There are several new
potential sources of genetic
material,” says Schillinger,
“most of which will come
from the World Collection."
The World Soybean
“At FNB, we pay the ab
solute highest commercial
bank interest oh your sav
—Bob Keene,
Assistant Manager
mgs.”
Collection is a large bank of
soybean germplasm
supervised by the USDA and
state scientists at the
University of Illinois. New
plant introductions are
released to plant breeders
regularly in the hopes that
some exotic variety, native
to China, Japan and Man
churia, may exhibit
promising characteristics
that can be transferred into
domestic lines and unlock
the door to superior
production.
“We have already
discovered germplasm from
the World Collection that
shows potential for certain
fertility response,*’ says
Schillinger.
Farmers National Bar
Banking the way y
QUARRYVILLE West Fourth St.
‘‘We provide
ing for everyone
of age and witho
balance.”
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