Soybean production has increased steadily in Manitoba, however, there is no public soybean breeding program existing in the area. The soybean cultivars grown in southern Manitoba generally belong to the maturity group (MG) 00. Breeding effort for such early maturing cultivars is often limited by the lack of genetic materials. With the funding from the MPGA, a collection of 155 early maturing soybean lines was evaluated at the Morden Research Station, Emerson and Thornhill during 2009-2011. The 155 early-maturing diverse soybean lines provide potentially new breeding materials to the public breeding in Manitoba. The majority of the collection appeared suitable to be grown under the local conditions. The field evaluation has identified lines with desirable maturity, good seed characteristics, abiotic stress tolerance and high yield potential. Further evaluation at multiple sites will be conducted and elite lines will be used for crossing. As the seed amounts build up, the protein and oil content will also be estimated and selected.
