NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
February 17, 2000
The North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station at North Dakota State University is releasing a soybean variety containing genes that confer resistance to several races of Phytophthora root rot. This new variety, Barnes, is named after the county in eastern North Dakota, and it will be subject to the 1994 amendments of the Plant Variety Protection Act with the Title V option.
Barnes was developed under the leadership of Ted Helms, NDSU's soybean breeder. Working with Helms on this effort were NDSU plant pathologist Berlin Nelson and Jay Goos, an NDSU soil scientist.
"It's difficult to understate the importance of having a public soybean variety available with Phytophthora resistance," Nelson says.
The tolerance of Barnes to iron chlorosis is similar to that of Council, another NDSU soybean variety, says Goos. In trials, Barnes has yielded especially well on water-saturated, heavy clay soils.
Tests in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota indicate that Barnes has about a 6-percent yield advantage compared to Council, Helms says. In addition, Barnes matures about three days earlier than Council but five days later than Traill, another NDSU release.
Barnes is expected to replace much of the soybean acreage currently devoted to Council and Lambert, says Al Schneiter, chair of the NDSU Department of Plant Sciences. If Barnes were to replace only 50 percent of the acreage in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota currently dedicated to those older varieties, it should generate about $300,000 in new income for producers (based on current prices) because of its yield advantage.
Schneiter says a portion of the financial support to develop Barnes came from the North Dakota Soybean Council and the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council.
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Sources: Al Schneiter (701) 231-8137
Ted Helms (701) 231-8136
Berlin Nelson (701) 231-7057
Jay Goos (701) 231-8581
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136