`MILLION-DOLLAR SOYBEAN' DEVELOPED

PORTAGEVILLE -- A "super soybean" has been developed by a University of Missouri soybean breeder.

The new variety, Hartwig, will be "million dollar soybean," says Sam Anand, MU professor of agronomy who heads the soybean breeding program at the university's Delta Center here.

"I don't want to overstate the case, but Hartwig should be worth another two to four bushels of soybeans an acre," said Anand. "That means about $3 million a year in Missouri's Bootheel alone. And, there will be a `spillover' to other areas of the country, where Hartwig or some spinoff varieties will be grown."

He added that the new variety has shown resistance to all known races of soybean cyst nematode (SCN).

The development of the SCN-resistant soybean is a dream come true for growers who have battled the devastating pest for years. Nematodes invisible to the naked eye undermine root systems, devastating yields and farmer's profits.

Seed for the new soybean is now being increased, and will be made available to growers in less than two years.

Hartwig is the result of years of painstaking research work and an incredible piece of luck.

In 1984, after screening approximately a half million soybean plants from all over the world, Anand found just one line P1437654 that was resistant to all known SCN races.

The resistant line didn't amount to a 'hill of beans." It was a scraggly looking, black-seeded bean that made it to the U.S. from China, via the Soviet Union.

But the homely bean turned into a handsome prince when Anand crossed it with Forest, a soybean resistant to only race 3 of SCN (there are at least a dozen known SCN races).

The cross of forest and P1437654 produced Hartwig, a variety that not only contains built-in SCN resistance but also produced the kind of yields grower like.

Hartwig will be suited for SCN infested growing areas of Southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, and parts of Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and the Carolinas.

Anand said he or other scientists will use what they know of Hartwig's development to produce SCN resistant varieties for other areas of the country.

The "Hartwig" variety was named after Edgar Hartwig, USDA Agriculture Research Service Scientist of Stoneville, Miss., who developed and released more than 25 different soybean varieties, including the Forest.

Hartwig was recently honored by the Missouri Seed Improvement Association, the Missouri Soybean Association, and the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council, for his lifelong contributions to soybean breeding.

Some funding of Anand's research was appropriated by Congress this year through the USDA. Helping to get that appropriation for the Missouri program was Congressman Bill Emerson, (R) Missouri, and Mississippi Congressman Jamie Whitten.

"We're glad that Congress agrees with the soybean growers and us that this research is so important," said Anand.