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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #209097
Title: BREEDING SOYBEANS FOR FORAGE PRODUCTION

Author
item Devine, Thomas
item STARNER, DAVID - VA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
item DARMOSARKORO, WITJAKSANA - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item MOORE, KENNETH - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item LUCEY, ROBERT - CORNELL UNIVERSITY
item HATLEY, ELWOOD - PENN STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: International Symposium on Molecular Breeding of Forage Crops Proceedings
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/30/2007
Publication Date: 7/30/2007
Citation: Devine, T.E., Starner, D.E., Darmosarkoro, W., Moore, K.J., Lucey, R.F., Hatley, E.O. 2007. Breeding soybeans for forage production. International Symposium on Molecular Breeding of Forage Crops Proceedings. Zbornik Radova. 44:49-54.

Interpretive Summary: Livestock farmers reduce production cost with on farm production of good quality forage with high protein content that does not require application of industrial produced nitrogen fertilizer. Small seeded perennial legumes have traditionally provided this forage. However, these crops are expensive to establish, are subject to loss through winter killing and require multiple harvesting during the growing season. Soybean is a spring seeded annual, not subject to winter killing, and can be harvested in a single cutting of the forage thus requiring less motorized traveling over the fields. This report provides the results of several tests conducted in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Iowa with soybean cultivars bred for use as forage. This information serves as guidance to farmers on the appropriate time for forage harvest and serves as guidance to forage soybean breeders in breeding and selecting future forage soybean cultivars. This information will help farmers select the appropriate forage soybean cultivars for use on their farm in order to produce an inexpensive readily available on farm source of good quality forage for economic and efficient production of livestock products (such as meat, wool, etc.) for consumers at reasonable prices.

Technical Abstract: At Chazy, NY yields of forage soybeans varied from 14.3 Mg ha-1 to 5.6 Mg ha-1 over three years with CP ranging from 169 g kg-1 to 116 g kg-1 and NDF ranging from 513 g kg-1 to 445 g kg-1. At Ames, IA, IVDMD declined from 700 g kg-1 46 days after planting then increased at seasons end as seed increased as a portion of the biomass. At Orange, VA, where the forage soybean Tyrone was inter-planted with pearl millet, Tyrone grew taller than the pearl millet and this combination yielded more than pearl millet alone, suggesting that pearl millet benefited from association with the N2 fixing soybean.