St. Louis, Missouri
January 29, 2009
USDA scientist expresses
appreciation for Soybean Checkoff’s consistent funding
The United Soybean Board
(USB) and soybean checkoff are pleased to congratulate Tommy
Carter, PhD., and his team of researchers as they prepare to
release a line of drought-tolerant soybeans. In addition, the
soybean checkoff is proud to have played such a major role in
helping fund the project in partnership with the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s Agricultural
Research Service (USDA-ARS).
“In 1980, when I started this type of research, we all knew
drought-tolerance was important to farmers. But from the
research side, we didn’t know anything about drought-tolerance
or if we could do anything about it genetically,” Carter said.
“Because of climate change, there’s been more awareness recently
in the scientific community that drought research is a priority.
The United Soybean Board [through soybean checkoff research
programs] has been the one who was there the whole time,
starting in 1998.”
Carter, a plant geneticist with USDA-ARS located at North
Carolina State University, began his quest for drought-tolerant
soybeans some 25 years ago. Over the past 11 years, the soybean
checkoff has expanded this work, providing Carter and his team a
total of over $7 million. Over that time, the project has
utilized an average of just under $650,000 per year in checkoff
funding, which is used strictly as funding for research.
Checkoff funds do not compensate researchers.
“In the 1990s, USB asked farmers what was important and they
said drought tolerance, so the soybean checkoff began the
funding,” Carter said. “It’s been hard to get much support from
other sources because studying drought-tolerance in soybeans is
so risky. But USB stuck with it through thick and thin because
it’s so important.”
Drought awareness is just as important for farmers now as it was
then, says Rick Stern, USB Production Program Chair and a
soybean farmer from Cream Ridge, N.J.
“There is somebody on our committee every year who is hit by
drought,” Stern said. “Drought doesn’t care about whom it picks
on; it hits somebody new every year.”
Carter combed the thousands of exotic soybean lines that are
housed at the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection in Urbana, Ill.
Finally, he identified a rare drought-tolerant trait, thereby
narrowing down the field to five that could pass the
drought-resistance test consistently.
“One day, we went out to the field, which contained plots of all
these different types of soybeans, after it hadn’t rained in
about two weeks and five of the plots hadn’t wilted,” Carter
said. “So over the next five years, we investigated what made
those specific types not wilt. We’re looking for those rare
exceptions in soybean traits that are slow-wilting.”
Carter then faced the problem of getting them to yield
acceptably. After one final round of trials, Carter says he’ll
release the winner this year. Carter says that under drought
conditions, where conventional soybeans may yield only about 30
bushels per acre, his line will yield four to eight bushels per
acre better, depending on the region. At the same time, this
line produces well under wet conditions.
“Tommy Carter has had great success with this project,” Stern
said. “He’s constantly hitting the goals that he tells us he’s
going to meet every year.”
According to Carter, drought is the top environmental limitation
to soybean yield. His team, he says, is trying to become the
first to demonstrate progress in soybean performance under
drought conditions.
Carter’s team of researchers consists of eight scientists from
six state universities. Tom Rufty and Tom Sinclair both
represent North Carolina State; Larry Purcell and Pengyin Chen
are from the University of Arkansas. Then there is Felix
Fritschi, University of Missouri; Jim Specht, University of
Nebraska; Jim Orf, University of Minnesota; and Roger Boerma,
University of Georgia. Carter also enlisted the help of
collaborators Randy Nelson, who is the curator of the USDA
Soybean Germplasm Collection, and USDA geneticists Perry Cregan
and David Hyten.
USB is made up of 68 farmer-directors who oversee the
investments of the soybean checkoff on behalf of all U.S.
soybean farmers. Checkoff funds are invested in the areas of
animal utilization, human utilization, industrial utilization,
industry relations, market access and supply. As stipulated in
the Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act,
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has oversight
responsibilities for USB and the soybean checkoff. |
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