Michigan’s Thumb research evaluates 2012 Liberty-Link soybeans

Questions about this information? Contact us. November 08, 2012

Updated from an original article written by Bob Battel.

Michigan State University Extension educators established a field trial to evaluate Liberty-Link soybean varieties.

Liberty-Link soybeans are genetically modified to be resistant to applications of glufosinate, the active ingredient in Ignite herbicide, a registered product of Bayer CropScience LP. The use of Liberty-Link technology, and Ignite herbicide is useful in breaking a cycle of continuous, or nearly continuous, glyphosate use in Roundup-Ready systems. To that end, Michigan State University Extension educators in the greater Thumb area established a plot to evaluate the performance of eight commercially available Liberty-Link soybean varieties from two participating companies. The objective was to determine which Liberty-Link varieties yielded well in conditions in the Thumb area in 2012.

The plot was established at Gerstenberger Farms, north of Sandusky on May 23, 2012. As in much of the state, June and July were very dry. A generous amount of precipitation was finally received on August 9 and 10 and was largely responsible for high yields. Despite intentions, Ignite herbicide was not actually used on this trial as the pre-emergent herbicide provided sufficient weed control. The trial was harvested on October 5 and all results are provided in Table 1.

Table 1. Performance of Liberty-link soybean varieties (Sandusky, MI, 2012)

Company	Variety	Maturity	Seed Trt	Cyst Res/Source	testwt	moisture	Yield Bu/A
*Stine Seed*	*22LC32*	2.2		P188788	57.4	16.3	*70.3*
*Stine Seed*	*24LC03*	2.4		P188788	56.8	18.1	*68.3*
*Stine Seed*	*25LA20*	2.5		P188788	57.2	16.8	*68.2*
*DF Seeds*	*9251 NLL*	2.5	A P V	P188788	57.2	17.0	*68.1*
*DF Seeds*	*9221 NLL*	2.2	A P V	P188788	57.4	16.2	*66.9*
*Stine Seed*	*14LA36*	1.4		P188788	57.4	16.2	*66.4*
DF Seeds	9161LL	1.6	A P V	None	57.7	15.3	61.2
DF Seeds	9181 NLL	1.8	A P V	P188788	57.5	16.2	60.2
Average					57.3	16.5	66.2
LSD @ 0.05 = 8.1 bu/A
CV = 6.9%

Bolded, italicized yields are not significantly different from top yielding variety.

The educators gratefully acknowledge the support Gerstenberger Farms, cooperating seed companies, and the Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).