Profitability analysis and quality evaluation of specialty soybean for the soyfood market

he evaluation conducted in the present study identified experimental lines that can be used for future breeding purposes and at the same time determined new potential specialty soybean cultivars adapted to Arkansas, these cultivars can provide good yield potential for growers and the desired quality traits for processors. Finally, it also provided break-even analysis as a tool to evaluate profitability of these cultivars in the specialty soybean market.;Commercial and experimental lines of specialty soybean cultivars were evaluated for agronomic and quality traits; agronomic performance and compositional characteristics were measured at two to five locations in Arkansas from 2003 to 2004. The different tests included: 129 lines and cultivars targeting large-seeded soybean market, 84 small-seeded lines and cultivars targeting the small-seeded natto market, 20 lines of high protein soybean lines, and 20 experimental lines and cultivars of vegetable soybeans. Yield, plant height, shattering and maturity were recorded to evaluate agronomic performance; seed size, protein and oil contents were measured for all tests; hardness and calcium content were measured for small seeded genotypes. Promising lines with best yield potential were advanced for further testing and potential release as specialty soybean cultivars adapted to Arkansas. The agronomic evaluation and compositional analysis also helped to study the variability among genotypes for different quality traits that can be used as genetic resources for breeding specialty soybeans. Correlations for yield, protein and seed size were also analyzed; among large-seeded genotypes seed size correlated negative with yield and positive with protein content; small-seeded genotypes however, correlated positive with yield, and negative with protein. For the large-seeded tofu soybean genotypes there is room for improvements in seed size and protein content, balancing off yield potential. For the small-seeded natto soybean genotypes there is room for yield and seed size improvement, balancing off protein content. Additionally break-even analysis was used to determine minimum yield drag levels and potential profitability at current market prices. At the time of the study, large-seeded cultivars at current market premium price of...