UoG Researcher Gets $2M to Study Soybean Genetics

May 01, 2014

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

Soybean research efforts are being supported at the University of Guelph.

Nearly $2 million of government and industry support will go towards identifying genetic markers to improve soybean varieties. The research objectives aim to provide the industry with new varieties that have desirable traits including – high yields, high protein content, disease resistance, as well as varieties that could offer certain health benefits.

Dr. Istvan Rajcan will head the research along with a 15-member team.

Rajcan was recently awarded a $500,000 Collaborative Research and Development Grant by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. The grant was matched by industry support from Grain Farmers of Ontario, SeCan Association and Huron Commodities Inc. His funding also received support from the Ontario government.

“We are intent on helping farmers in Canada get access to high-performing soybean varieties, and taking a scientific approach to doing that,” Rajcan said in a release.

Rajcan has been a professor at the University of Guelph since 1998.

Quick soybean facts:

• Soybean production in Canada has increased by 450 per cent since 1980
• In the past decade – soybeans have become Ontario’s largest cash crop
• Ontario farmers plant more than two and a half million acres’ of soybeans each year
• In 2012, Ontario’s soybean crop was worth more than $1.7 billion

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.