AVERY SOYBEAN FINDING ITS NITCH AS A WHEAT-BEAN DOUBLE-CROP

PORTAGEVILLE -- Avery soybeans, planted as a second crop following wheat, really paid off this year says Jake Fisher, superintendent of the University of Missouri Delta Center located near here.

"Growers in this area grew 50-bushel beans following wheat this year," said Fisher. "Avery has found its niche in the wheat-soybean double-crop situation."

Joe Lynn of Cooter, Mo. agrees. '"A lot of farmers around here had yields consistently in the high 40s and low 50s," said Lynn, owner of Lynn Seed Co. "The Avery soybeans were the last planted and the first harvested. They came off before the early group five beans."

"Avery has created a lot of coffee shop talk this year," said Dale Wehmeyer, manager of the Missouri Foundation Seed of Columbia. "Farmers area interested in a soybean that will do well following wheat."

Avery Soybean variety is resistance to races 3 and 17 of the soybean cyst nematode and has moderate resistance to the rootknot nematode, said Fisher.

The Avery soybean variety was developed by MU plant breeder Sam Anand at the Delta Center. It was patented and released for certified seed production in 1987.

Anand's breeding research is partially funded by farmers through the check-off dollars administered by the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council.

The acreage of Avery planted in Missouri has steadily increased. The variety was released by the MU Agricultural Experiment Station. Jerry Schuerenberg, executive secretary-treasurer of the Missouri Seed Improvement Association of Columbia, said about 2,500 acres of certified Avery soybeans were grown in the state last year.

"Avery has done well in Southeast and Southwest Missouri," said Schuerenberg. "And, we're hearing reports of good yields in Arkansas and Tennessee."

Rick Mammon, area extension agronomist at Lamar, Mo., says planting of Avery soybeans have tripled in Southwest Missouri the past two years.

"Double-crop soybeans are king around here," he said. "We're heavy in wheat and soybeans."

Meanwhile, a new variety of soybeans has been developed at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Tentatively called "Nile," pending name approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Seed Regulatory and Testing Agency, this is the fourth soybean variety developed by SIU-C.

"Test show that the new variety is highly resistance to the soybean cyst nematode," said soybean breeder Michael E. Schmidt of the university's College of Agriculture.

"Right now, the grower's best chance of high yields when dealing with the cyst nematode is to plant varieties with high resistance or tolerance," said Schmidt. "Soybean cyst nematodes are tiny white worms which attack the rooting systems of soybeans, cutting off water and nutrients."

Schmidt said that cyst nematodes are reported in about 80 percent of all soybean crops, and that infestations can cut yields by as much as 50 percent.

Limited quantities of Nile should be available in time for spring planting in 1993.

Schmidt said the Nile is an early, Group IV soybean variety, and "will be among one of the earliest maturing varieties."

SIU-C breeders started work on the Nile in 1983. Research continued with federal testing through 1990.

"Tests have shown that Nile matures four to five days ahead of Pyramid, another SIU-released, Group IV variety," said Schmidt. The other two varieties released by the SIU breeding program are Egyptian and Pharaoh. Funding for the research comes from the Illinois Soybean Program Operating Board through the state's voluntary checkoff system.