NS-Kaća: High-protein, very early soybean cultivar

NS-Kaca, a new, very early soybean cultivar, has been created at the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops Novi Sad by crossing domestic and foreign genotypes. The main traits of the cultivar are its early maturity, which placed it into the 000 maturity group, and excellent technological quality of grain. Due to the short vegetation period, it is primarily sown as the second crop in our country, or as the first crop in northern countries (Russia, Ukraine, Austria, Slovenia) and hilly regions. It provides economically justifiable yield gain during the second crop harvest if sowing is conducted by the end of early July, so each day of sowing delay significantly reduces yield. It achieved significantly higher yields in the multiannual macro- and micro-trials compared to standard cultivars from the same maturity group. Producers are advised to sow 600,000 germinated seeds per hectare. The cultivar is also suitable for narrow-row planting (with inter-row spacing of 12.5 cm or 25 cm), whereby the planting rate can be increased by 15-20%. Seed of the cultivar NS-Kaca can also be used as raw material in the production of products intended for human consumption, thanks to the high protein content which is usually between 44% and 47% (in absolutely dry grain). It is suitable for the production of soy milk and soy milk products, due to its large grain, coated with light-yellow seed coat without mottled appearance, and weak expression of hilum colour same as the seed coat, which provides a natural, milkywhite colour of the final products. Development and dissemination of the newly released cultivar NS-Kaca is a major step forward in soybean breeding, as the cultivar exhibited a significantly higher protein content while maintaining its high-yielding potential, despite the strong negative correlation of these traits.