The North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station has developed and released ND Henson, a conventional soybean variety, according to Rich Horsley, chair of the NDSU Department of Plant Sciences. 

The soybean line is intended to replace the NDSU-developed cultivar Cavalier.

In yield trials conducted by Ted Helms, NDSU soybean breeder, ND Henson was two days later in maturity than Cavalier and yielded 6 bushels per acre more. ND Henson is resistant to races 3 and 4 of phytophthora root rot, is tolerant to iron deficiency chloross and is lodging resistant.

ND Henson performed very well in the multistate uniform regional tests conducted in 2013 and 2014. Averaged across all multistate locations, it was two days later in maturity and yielded 8.1 bushels per acre more than Cavalier. In North Dakota, the tests were conducted in Langdon, Park River and Minot. Other tests conducted were in Shelly, Moorhead and Crookston, Minnesota, and locations in Canada.

The new soybean variety has a purple flower, tawny pubescence and a black hila.

"With the growing problem of glyphosate-resistant weeds, there is a potential for a conventional soybeans, such as ND Henson, to be a good fit with marginal land situations and save on seed costs," says Helms. "Also, ND Henson had a similar maturity date and produced a higher yield than the Roundup Ready variety Asgrow AG 00932."

ND Henson was named in honor of the late Bob Henson who was an associate agronomist at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center.

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