NEW SOYBEAN VARIETY TO BE AVAILABLE FOR AREA'S 1998 CROP

A new soybean variety has out-produced all 38 varieties tested in Southeast Missouri yield trials.

Delsoy 5500, a new variety developed by University of Missouri soybean breeder Sam Anand, will be available to growers in 1998.

Delsoy 5500 averaged 50.8 bushels an acre in three trials in 1996 at Oran and on Portageville area clay and loam soil. The average yield of the other commercially available varieties was 44.1 bushes.

On soybean cyst nematode-infested land, Anand said Delso 5500 was resistant to Races 3 and 14 of the nematode and yielded 25 to 30 percent higher than Hutcheson.

Delsoy is a Group V maturity soybean, suited to growing in the Mid South, and was jointly released in 1996 by the Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina agriculture experiment stations.

Arnand took a supply of Delsoy 5500 to Costa Rica during the winter when the warm climate allowed him to grow two crops and produce 100 bushels of seed. That supply is being further increased by foundation seed producers, who will have 2,500 bushes of seed for registered growers this year. The registered growers will produce enough to supply farmers in time for the 1998 growing season.