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Ontario Grain Farmer Magazine

CFCRA Soybean Cluster; Activity 2 – Short season food type soybean breeding

Principal Investigator: Elroy Cober
Research Institution: Ottawa Research & Development Centre, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Project Start: April 2018
Project End: March 2023

Funding Partners: 
Funding for the Soybean Cluster is provided by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada AgriScience Program through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, with industry support from the Canadian Field Crop Research Alliance (CFCRA) whose members include: Atlantic Grains Council; Producteurs de grains du Quebec; Grain Farmers of Ontario; Manitoba Corn Growers Association; Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers; Saskatchewan Pulse Growers; Prairie Oat Growers Association; SeCan; and FP Genetics.

Objectives: 

  • Develop high yielding conventional soybean cultivars adapted to Maturity Group 000 or 00 areas
  • Validate newly identified maturity loci and determine their performance in various Canadian environments

Impact:

  • This activity will benefit the Canadian field crop sector by providing new non-GM, high yielding, early maturing soybean cultivars for production in short season regions
  • Early maturity will reduce production risk in the short season regions
  • High yielding cultivars will increase profitability
  • Non-GM soybean will provide opportunities for market premiums

Activity Summary:
This activity will aim to benefit the Canadian field crop sector by providing new non-genetically modified (non-GM), high yielding, early maturing soybean cultivars for production in short season regions, and validating early maturity gene performance to improve the breeding process.

Three programs across three provinces are collaborating to develop conventional soybean cultivars targeting MG 000 and 00 areas of Canada.  Dr. Warkentin at the Crop Development Centre, University of Saskatchewan will emphasize adaptation to MG 000 areas due to access to very short season testing sites.  Dr. Cober at the Ottawa Research & Development Centre, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada will emphasize MG 00 conventional soybean cultivar development with the addition of testing tofu texture through AAFC Ottawa collaborators.  Dr. O’Donoughue at CÉROM will emphasize MG 00 cultivar development and applying molecular biology toward the understanding and utilization of genotype x environment aspects of early maturity.

Each program will make crosses and develop populations and experimental lines.  Cober and O’Donoughue will develop some populations to be screened for MG 000 maturity by Warkentin in Saskatoon.  All three will collaborate in a high level testing system where MG 000 lines are tested at four locations in Saskatchewan and two in Manitoba, and MG 00 lines are tested at two locations in Ontario, two in Quebec, and two in Manitoba.