The Uniform Soybean Tests, Southern States, in place since 1943, evaluate yield, disease resistance, and quality traits of public breeding lines from the southern states of the USA. The annual reports which compile the test results (PDF format) are available, and new reports are added annually. The Uniform Soybean Testing Program has been directed toward the testing of elite breeding lines that ultimately leads to the release of varieties. Breeding lines are developed and evaluated in several participating federal and state research programs. As breeding lines demonstrate specific qualities in the individual programs, they are advanced to the preliminary and uniform regional tests conducted in cooperation with research workers in the southern states. This testing program enables breeders to evaluate new strains under a wide variety of conditions, and permits new strains to be put into production in a minimum amount of time. A wide range of soil and climatic conditions exists in the regions. As an aid in recognizing regional adaptation, the region has been subdivided into five rather broad areas which still represent a wide range of soil types. These are: (1) the East Coast, consisting of the Coastal Plain and Tidewater areas of the eastern shore of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and the upper half of South Carolina; (2) the Southeast, consisting primarily of the Coastal Plain soils of the Gulf Coast area, but also including similar soil from South Carolina, southward; (3) the Upper and Central South, including the Piedmont and loessial hill soils east of the Mississippi River; (4) the Delta area, composed of the alluvial soils along the Mississippi River from southern Missouri, southward; and (5) the West, comprising Arkansas and Louisiana (outside the Delta), Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. In the West, the potential soybean-growing areas would include alluvial soils, and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. Germplasm exchange among breeding programs is the foundation of breeding progress. The purpose of the Uniform Soybean Test is to facilitate the free exchange of germplasm in an effort to maximize genetic diversity and provide well-adapted, stable breeding lines and varieties in the pursuit of breeding progress. Participants are encouraged to exchange germplasm within the legal guidelines pertaining to transgenic strains.
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