William T. Schapaugh, Jr. is a professor and soybean breeder in the Kansas State University Department of Agronomy. He received a B.S. degree from Iowa State University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University. His research focuses on soybean cultivar development with the goals of improving seed yield, genetic diversity and abiotic stress.

Soybeans are an economically important crop for Kansas. Soybeans tend to be grown on over 4 million acres each year and are a key component of crop rotations, especially in the eastern half of Kansas. Genetic advances in performance have resulted in soybeans being a viable crop on more dryland and irrigated Kansas acres than ever before.

The overall goal of the soybean breeding program is to develop soybean varieties and germplasm for use as genetic resources for companies and for direct on-farm production.

Specific objectives of the program include:

• Develop maturity group 3 through 5 commodity and specialty soybean varieties with optimized seed composition for use as genetic resources for companies and other public programs that develop varieties, and for direct on-farm production.
• Evaluate and implement new breeding technologies, including marker assisted selection, genomic selection, and high throughput phenotyping to improve genetic gain.
• Identify and characterize unique sources of heat tolerance and drought stress in existing soybean germplasm that will help strengthen the development of commercial soybean varieties with improved abiotic stress tolerance.
• Combine resistances to important pathogens.
• Enhance genetic diversity to help bridge the gap in performance between exotic germplasm and elite varieties.

The project cooperates with many members of the soybean research community at K-State and located throughout the US to leverage our resources and skills to enhance the genetic improvement of soybean.

We certainly want to acknowledge the financial support and the people that make this project possible. This project is supported by funds from the State of Kansas and through grants from the Kansas Soybean Commission, United Soybean Board, North Central Soybean Research Program, and the United States Department of Agriculture. In the past year, more than 14 different undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students supported the activities associated with soybean breeding and genetics in the Departments of Agronomy, Plant Pathology, and Biological and Agricultural Engineering.