UW soybean-variety trials complete

Dec 11, 2025

The Wisconsin Soybean Performance Trials are conducted each year with producer needs in mind. Our objective is to give producers the information to select varieties that will satisfy their specific goals and are most likely to perform best under their management practices. The 2025 Wisconsin Soybean Performance Trials featured a diverse range of entries submitted by seed companies, private breeders and university researchers. Those included both commercially available and experimental varieties, with additional cultivars added for comparison. Trials were conducted using conventional, reduced tillage or no-till practices, planted at a rate of 160,000 seeds per acre in 15-inch rows.

Growing conditions across Wisconsin were generally favorable in 2025. While normal precipitation and average temperatures in spring delayed planting, late-season dryness did not significantly impact crop development. Those conditions supported consistent growth and maturation across trial locations, allowing for reliable performance comparisons among varieties.

Performance was evaluated based on yield, lodging, maturity and grain composition. Yields were measured in bushels per acre at 13 percent moisture, while lodging scores reflected plant erectness at maturity. Maturity was determined by pod color or frost occurrence. Grain composition, specifically protein and oil content, was measured using SCiO NIR sensors mounted on combines. This new approach enhances transparency and helps growers make informed decisions by considering both yield and nutritional value.

Due to the government shutdown, state-level yield estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service were unavailable at the time of posting. But based on results from our performance trials, we estimate that soybean yields in Wisconsin for 2025 were better than the long-term trend and likely approached, if not reached, state record levels.

Seed companies, private breeders, and university research and Extension specialists voluntarily submitted any number of entries they wished for the trials. Most of the entries are commercially available, but experimental varieties were also tested. Several additional commercial and public cultivars were included for comparison. Tests were conducted using a randomized complete block design with four replicates.

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Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.