New Soybean Varieties Abound for 2024

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (DTN) -- It's the time of year when seed companies roll out their latest soybean offerings and growers will have dozens of new varieties to choose from in 2024. They'll also have expanded options from Nutrien Ag Solutions in the future.

Loveland Products Inc., a subsidiary of Nutrien, recently announced its acquisition of a soybean breeding program from BASF. The program includes breeding sites in Marion, Arkansas, and Leland, Mississippi, adding to Nutrien's in-house seed portfolio under the Loveland Products' Dyna-Gro brand.

In the announcement, Nutrien stated that by integrating innovative technologies, breeding and agronomy specific to soybeans, the company aims to provide whole-acre solutions that enable soybean growers to realize the full potential of their crops.

"By expanding into soybeans, we're showing our commitment to providing solutions for our customers and investing in the future of row-crop growers," said Spencer Harris, Nutrien senior vice president of global retail operations. "We believe this move will help growers increase their crop yields and achieve better quality products."

Dyna-Gro currently offers soybeans ranging from relative maturity group (MG) 0.06 to MG 7.2. While no varieties from the acquisition will be available in 2024, they include both conventional and XtendFlex varieties as well as multiple breeding populations tailored for the southern United States. The varieties are classified as MG 4.5 and later.

In a statement to DTN, a BASF spokesperson said the company chose to divest the two sites to Nutrien "to optimize the use of research and development resources across the region."

"Soybean and cotton seeds and traits remain a critical component of BASF's business and this decision enables greater focus and optimization of resources at BASF's remaining research sites," the spokesperson wrote.

Previously, BASF announced the addition of 11 varieties to the Xitavo soybean seed line for 2024, expanding the portfolio to 44 varieties ranging from MG 0.0 to MG 4.8.

"The addition of these new varieties will provide growers a strong foundation for their soybean acres," said Marc Hoobler, BASF canola & soybean agronomy lead. "We want to give soybean growers complete confidence in their weed-control programs, so all new varieties support versatility and include the Enlist E3 triple-stack herbicide-tolerant trait."

Pioneer recently announced its newest soybean seed, the Z-Series, available in limited volumes for 2024. The series, which represents the company's largest advancement class, includes 51 varieties ranging from MG 00.3 to MG 6.4.

"This Z-Series class of soybeans builds on 50 years of soybean breeding at Pioneer," said Liz Knutson, Pioneer U.S. soybean marketing lead. "During this 50-year history, we have introduced five soybean 'series' -- B, M, Y, T and A -- that each signaled trait technology innovations and transitions and set a new standard for Pioneer soybean performance."

In its announcement, Pioneer stated the new soybean varieties offer improved disease tolerance against sudden death syndrome, brown stem rot, white mold and iron deficiency chlorosis. The Z-Series also expands Pioneer's varieties that stack Peking genetic resistance to soybean cyst nematode (SCN) with phytophthora resistance.

Of the 51 Z-Series varieties, none are conventional soybeans. The vast majority (48) contain the Enlist E3 trait, including two with the sulfonylurea tolerance soybean (STS) gene and two with BOLT technology for greater sulfonylurea tolerance. The remaining three varieties contain the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend and LiberyLink traits for cotton acres in the Delta region.

Asgrow also recently announced it would offer 22 new soybean varieties for 2024 ranging from MG 00 to MG 5.0. The new lineup features resistance to key soybean diseases, including white mold, Phytophthora, brown stem rot, SCN and iron deficiency chlorosis.

Among the new varieties are 18 with the XtendFlex triple-stacked trait allowing for post-emergence application of dicamba, glyphosate and glufosinate herbicides. One contains the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend trait and three are conventional. All but one use PI 88788 as the source of SCN resistance.

"We're excited about our 2024 class of Asgrow XtendFlex products," said Asgrow brand manager Clint Chaffer. "We're seeing outstanding yield performance potential, great disease tolerance and excellent weed control from our XtendFlex technology."

Jason Jenkins can be reached at jason.jenkins@dtn.com

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