30 GERMINATION.CA JANUARY 2018 Germination: How do you as a rep familiarize yourself with new varieties? BP: I get my feet on the ground and run four or five locations of repli- cated trials, spend time with the new genetics, and I depend heavily on seed grower testimonials. They tell me what went wrong and what they liked about the products. The key is to share that information with my growers and retailers to help build confidence. Information sharing has to include the good, bad and ugly. As a team, my retails and myself can figure out where a product fits best, or doesn’t fit at all. I’ve had varieties that looked amazing on paper but failed out in the real world. Germination: How can growers make the most of the soybean section in their favourite seed guide? BP: You need to always make sure the data is as close to you as pos- sible. We see significant differences SUPPORTED BY: ENDORSED BY: DOWNLOADTHEWHOLE CONVERSATION! View our latest Retail Roundtable webinar about Soybeans on the Prairies at germination.ca/category/ retail-roundtable/ in how a product will yield in the Red River valley versus Yorkton or Boissevain. Make sure the data you’re looking at is as close as possible to your region and is over multiple loca- tions — you can’t look at just one or two yield locations. Some seed guides are changing the way they depict variety perfor- mance. Previously we showed yield charts; now we’re trying to feature more maturity photos so we can really tell a story. We have pictures of various varieties so we can see how they branch versus a wide bushy plant. We’re trying to include more photos on pod height to help farmers. Germination: There’s talk of soy- beans in Alberta. What’s the future there? EC: Canada has a history of soy- bean expansion West and northward. Starting from two counties in south- ern Ontario, we have seen expansion through Ontario, Quebec and now Manitoba. Who knows how much soybean can expand in Saskatchewan and Alberta? As far as breeding for these regions is concerned, we have to balance between too dry in the Palliser Triangle and too short a season as we move north. TW: There’s interest there on the research side and on the part of some growers. Right now the acreage is small. It should be a good fit in the irrigation district where you can rule out drought, but it would mean a compromise between picking soy- beans over some of the higher-value crops that are grown there. Seed guides are changing the way they depict soybean variety performance, as this example from SeCan shows.