Soybean Physiology, Agronomy, and Utilization

252 Pages·1987·4.73 MB·English

by  A.G. Norman (Eds.)

Contributors
W. A. Brun
Walter R. Fehr
D. R. Hicks
D. J. Hume
Harry C. Minor
A. G. Norman
F. T. Orthoefer
J. W. Tanner
D. Keith Whigham
Soybean
Physiology,
Agronomy, and Utilization
Edited by
A. G E O F F R EY N O R M AN
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
ACADEMIC PRESS
New York San Francisco London 1978
A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
COPYRIGHT © 1978, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED OR
TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC
OR MECHANICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPY, RECORDING, OR ANY
INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, WITHOUT
PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER.
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
ILL FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10003
United Kingdom Edition published by
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. (LONDON) LTD.
24/28 OVAL ROAD, LONDON NW1 7DX
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Soybean biology, agronomy, and utilization.
Includes bibliographies and index.
1. Soybean. I. Norman, Arthur Geoffrey, Date
SB205.S7S535 635\655 78-18399
ISBN 0-12-521160-0
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
List of Contributors
Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin.
W. A. BRUN (45), DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY AND PLANT GENETICS, UNIVERSITY
OF MINNESOTA, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA 55108
WALTER R. FEHR (119), DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY,
AMES, IOWA 50011
D. R. HICKS (17), AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICE, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA,
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA 55108
D. J. HUME (157), DEPARTMENT OF CROP SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH,
GUELPH, ONTARIO, CANADA N IG 2W1
HARRY C. MINOR (77), DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS,
URBANA, ILLINOIS 61801
A. G. NORMAN (1), THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 48109
F. T. ORTHOEFER (219), A. E. STALEY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, DECATUR,
ILLINOIS 62525
J. W. TANNER (157), DEPARTMENT OF CROP SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH,
GUELPH, ONTARIO, CANADA N IG 2W1
D. KEITH WHIGHAM (77), DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY,
AMES, IOWA 50011
ix
Preface
In a relatively brief period the soybean has become a major crop plant in
the United States. Based on the utilization of the bean, or products there
from, a substantial soybean industry has also developed. Its uses, agricul
tural and industrial, primarily depend on the high content of both protein
(ca. 40%) and oil (ca. 20%) in the bean. Soybeans are a cash crop and provide
a significant part of the farm income in those eight states in the Mississippi
River valley that together account for 75% of the United States production.
Revenues from the export of almost half the crop as beans, meal, or oil now are
a strong item in the balance-of-trade figures.
These developments have sprung from and stimulated much research on
the physiology, genetics, and related characteristics of the soybean plant, on
the one hand, and on agronomic aspects of its management and incorpora
tion into prevailing farm systems, on the other. The fruits of much of this
research have been rather quickly put into practice. New varieties or cul
tivars better adapted to the physical and agronomic environment of a desig
nated area have been produced; some were soon replaced by even better
yielding or more dependable cultivars. Concurrently there has been the
development of effective measures of pest and disease control.
My associates in the preparation of this book are all involved in aspects of
soybean research, improvement, and utilization programs. All are fasci
nated, as I have been, by the characteristics and environmental responsive
ness of the soybean plant. As these become better understood and as the
inheritance of the qualitative and quantitative characters controlling their
expression is worked out, so can the breeder develop pure lines that can be
expected to perform well in specified or designated areas.
Soybean yields are good in the corn belt region of the upper Mississippi
River valley but not because the environment of that region is uniquely favor
able. Initially, material that suited the cornbelt was selected from the available
xi
xii Preface
germplasm of Oriental origin. The earlier improvement work was concen
trated on developing better adapted lines from these selections. Sub
sequently, following similar procedures, new cultivars adapted to other re
quirements have been produced so that the area of profitable production in
the United States has steadily expanded and may expand further. Soybeans
can be grown from the equator to latitudes of more than 50°. There is a high
probability that this may become a crop far more widely planted than at
present, particularly in subtropical and middle latitude regions. This will in
great measure depend on the recognition of the environmental elements,
positive and negative, that influence the growth and development of the
plant, and of the requirements of management and use that govern the
adoption of a new crop.
In this book, therefore, we have attempted to cover and treat in logical
sequence those factors that contribute to the potential and versatility of this
useful crop plant.
A. GEOFFREY NORMAN
1
Background
A. G. NORMAN
I. Soybean Production 1
A. In the United States 1
B. Worldwide 10
II. Uses and Economics of Soybean Products 12
III. The Soybean in Physiological Research 14
I. SOYBEAN PRODUCTION
A. In the United States
In the Orient the soybean has a long history as a crop plant for human food
and animal feed, but elsewhere there has been significant production only in
this century. The establishment of the soybean as a major crop in the United
States has occurred since 1940, and in some other areas, such as Brazil, even
more recently. Expansion into new areas is not improbable.
There is general agreement that the soybean plant has its origins in the
northeastern provinces of China and Manchuria. The soybean of commerce
is Glycine max (L.) Merrill which taxonomists believe may have developed
from Glycine ussuriensis, Regal and Maack, a viny annual found in northern
China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. The genus Glycine is large with subgenera
consisting of vining perennials found in Australia, Africa, and southwest
Asia. Attempts to hybridize these with G. max have been unsuccessful.
As botanists obtained soybean collections from China and Manchuria in
the closing decades of the nineteenth century, seeds were distributed to
1
Soybean Physiology, Agronomy, and Utilization
Copyright © 1978 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
ISBN 0-12-521160-0
2 A. Geoffrey Norman
botanical gardens and agricultural stations in western Europe and the United
States. Descriptions of the growth and productivity of the soybean appeared
in various scientific journals of the time. In the United States, reports were
published in a number of state agricultural experiment station bulletins
around the turn of the century. Nowhere outside the Orient, however, did
the plant appear to have promise as a source of human food. Because of the
viny habit of much of the material available, most consideration was given to
its possible use as a forage crop. Its acceptance in the United States, though
slow, was largely due to the interest and efforts of C. V. Piper and W. J.
Morse of the United States Department of Agriculture.
The soybean varieties initially planted in the United States were selections
from a large number of introductions collected at various times in the Orient.
The germplasm available to the soybean breeder in the United States has the
same base. Breeding programs involving plant hybridization are compara
tively recent and utilize information on the types of gene action that underlie
the inheritance of plant characteristics of agronomic interest. The incon
spicuous flowers of the soybean are ordinarily self-fertilized, though some
natural crosses do occur.
The area planted to soybeans slowly enlarged, mainly in the Mississippi
Valley states, with Illinois as the leader. By 1938 it had reached 4 million
hectares (10 million acres) and a processing and marketing infrastructure was
well developed. Even so, on a substantial portion of this area the soybean
was still grown as a forage crop, either for hay, silage, or grazing. Not until
1941 did the portion of the planting harvested for beans exceed that for
forage purposes. For various reasons, primarily economic, the planting of
soybeans for forage rapidly declined and has virtually disappeared except as
an occasional expedient following failure of other crops.
World War II provided a strong stimulus to the planting of soybeans. By
that time varieties had been developed that were well adapted to the corn
belt states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio. In the war-time years, eco
nomic inducements were made to farmers to increase the soybean acreage.
Concurrently management experience was accumulating. Yields generally
averaged under 1330 kg/ha (20 bushels/acre). Between 1935 and 1945 United
States production of soybeans was quadrupled.
Since 1945 the soybean plantings have expanded fivefold and ha yields
have increased so that the 1975 production was more than eightfold that of
1945. Soybeans have become a major cash crop in United States agriculture
second only to corn in return to the farmer. Data on the overall United
States production of soybeans by 5-year periods since 1925 are shown in
Table I.
Although Illinois and the adjacent corn belt states remain the heart of
United States soybean production there has been considerable expansion
1. Background 3
TABLE I
United States Soybean Production 1925-1976°
Harvested area6 Production0
Year hectares x 1000 metric tons X 1000
1925 168 132
1930 435 379
1935 1180 1331
1940 1945 2124
1945 4346 5258
1950 5588 8145
1955 7535 10170
1960 9573 15108
1965 13941 23016
1970 17098 30677
1975 21694 41406
1976 20017 34423
a Figures converted from data in Agricultural Statistics,
United States Department of Agriculture.
b 1 Hectare = 2.47 acres.
c 1 Metric ton = 36.75 bushels.
both north and south, and beyond the Mississippi valley. Figure 1 shows the
location of production in the mid-1970's.
It was early recognized that flowering and maturation of the soybean was
related to day length and therefore to latitude. Varieties that had been
selected from the introductions from the Orient differed in flowering and
maturity dates. Expansion into new areas as a profitable crop depended upon
the availability of seed that would best respond to the day length and other
environmental conditions. An important step in soybean improvements was
the establishment of maturity groups, now 12 in number, into which va
rieties were placed according to relative times to maturity (see Chapter 4).
Breeding programs, carried out by the United States Department of Agricul
ture and the State Experiment Stations have increased in sophistication and
effectiveness as information has accumulated on the inheritance of plant
characters. Almost 100 named varieties, now called cultivars, have been
registered with the Crop Science Society of America, each with detail as to
source. The commercially planted varieties in the producing areas have
undergone rapid replacement as newer improved cultivars appear, incor
porating desirable agronomic characteristics, such as resistance to disease,
lodging, or shattering. Further replacement is likely. Continuing expansion
of the area of soybean production in the United States is probable. It must be
borne in mind, however, that although environmental considerations may
4 A. Geoffrey Norman
Soybean Production by Counties - 1975
Over 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres)
2000-16,000 hectares (5000-40,000 acres)
Fig. 1. Location of soybean production in the United States for 1975. Prepared from county
yield data. Statistical Reporting Service, United States Dept. of Agriculture.
determine where soybeans can be grown, other factors, agronomic and eco
nomic, enter into the decision to go into production.
The soybean is a major crop in the areas listed below.
1. Corn Belt States—Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Mis
souri, with major concentration in Illinois, southeast to northwest Iowa,
south and southwest Minnesota, west and central Indiana, northwest
Ohio, and northeast Missouri.