Potential of using plant row yield trials to predict soybean yield

Plant row yield trials (PRYT) are measured as an indicator of yield potenti al for many private and public soybean breeding programs. To identify elite lines and develop new cultivars, the highest yielding PRYT lines are usual ly advanced to multiple replications in different environments. Early gener ation PRYT testing has the advantage of identifying elite lines in the init ial phases of the selection process. The objective of this study was to det ermine if single row PRYT testing is a reliable predictor of yield in multi ple environment advanced yield testing. In 1996, five F-2:3 populations of crosses between different elite cultivars were grown as single row PRYT, Af ter the 1996 PRYT test, the top 10, middle 10, and bottom 10 yielding PRYT Lines from each population were selected for advanced testing in 1997 and 1 998, Yield and yield rank correlations between selected 1996 PRYT and advan ced yield testing were highest for the 'Jack' x 'Resnik' and 'Asgrow A3733' x 'Burlison' populations, respectively. Matrix analysis indicated that the lines selected from the Asgrow A3733 X Burlison population were the most s table when 1996 PRYT data are compared with advanced yield test data. Appro ximately five lines can be identified from each population that are the hig hest yielding in PRYT testing and advanced yield testing. Additionally, app roximately five lines could be identified from each population that are the lowest yielding in PRYT testing and advanced yield tests. In the populatio ns examined it can be concluded that early generation PRYT testing would al low for progress to be made in identifying elite soybean lines with high yi eld potential.