| introduced
into the US, with approximately 4,775 introductions brought in by W.J. Morse and P.H.
Dorsett between 1929 and 1931. Prior to 1940, the research community had produced only a
few soybean varieties that came from breeding programs. However, by the time the third
Soybean Blue Book was published there were very few new soybean varieties released which
came directly from introductions. Establishment of the US Regional Soybean Industrial Products
Laboratory in 1936, at Urbana, Illinois, which is now home to the National Soybean
Research Laboratory, was to forever change the soybean industry, not only in this country,
but internationally as well. Work at the NSRL now encompasses soybean breeding, genetic
engineering, food and nutritional sciences, disease and pest management, animal science,
marketing and utilization. Research continues at many US Department of Agriculture
facilities, at more than a dozen state universities, and in many private laboratories as
well.
Soybean research has
addressed higher yields, higher oil content, higher protein content, improved seed
quality, maturity dating, shattering resistance and the development of disease resistant
varieties of soybeans. More than a dozen Blue Books had been published by the time
Phytophthora root-rot-resistant soybean varieties were developed and released in the early
1960s. Cyst nematode, another scourge of the soybean, also created the need for emergency
programs to develop resistant varieties.
Orginally published in 1996 in the 50th
Anniversary Edition of the Soya Bluebook. |
