American Agriculturist asked seed companies to share details on their top five new varieties adapted for the Northeast. The information is listed in the order received from seven commercial sources.

Most notable are that the genetic packages are boosting stronger weed and disease protection. This year's "top picks" also seem to lean toward varieties with stronger standability traits.

Mycogen
* 5J009R2 is a branchy Group 0 variety with good stability that performs well across all soil types and row widths. It also offers strong tolerance to phytophthora root rot.

STACKED STRENGTHS: Soybean seeds are continually developed with more stacked genetic options for weed and disease control.

* 5N145R2 is a mid-Group 1 variety with good height and stability. A good fit for all planting practices, this soybean brings strong tolerance to soybean cyst nematode and brown stem rot.

* 5N157R2 is a tall mid-Group 4 with good stability and emergence, along with strong tolerance to iron deficiency chlorosis and PRR. It can withstand stressful growing conditions.

* 5N207R2 is a tall Group 2 with very good emergence and stability.  It has a solid defensive package plus excellent yield potential, enabling it to perform across all soil types and planting practices.

* 5B264R2 is a medium, bushy mid-Group 2 offering great stability and tolerance to PRR and sudden death syndrome. This variety is broadly adapted and works well in wide and narrow rows.

Growmark/FS
* HiSOY 20A44: This new Group 2 soybean sets the high-yield standard for this maturity group. It has the versatility to work well on variable soils and shows great standability under lush growing conditions. It has very good BSR and excellent emergence scores. 

* HiSOY 28T42: A new Group 2.8 sulfonylurea-tolerant soybean with Roundup Ready2 Yield herbicide flexibility, it's a bush bean with strong emergence and early vigor. It has an attractive light tawny finish at harvest and handles moderate white mold pressure. 

* HiSOY 30A42: This new bean offers high yields and wide adaptability across most Northeast soils. It's strong SCN and PRR package plus great standability boosts harvestability under lush growing conditions.

* HiSOY 36T42: Want the STS/RR2Y herbicide option?  This new mid Group 3 soybean is well suited for moderately productive to marginal soils across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It's light tawny brown at harvest. Aggressive early growth makes it a good double-crop option. 

* HiSOY 42T14: With broad environment and soil type adaptation, this early Group 4 RR/STS soybean is ready for the Delmarva. It has very good SCN and PRR resistance. Its attractive tawny plant type has a branchy fast-filling canopy.

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Hubner
* H21-15R2:  This Group 2.1 maturity Genuity RR2 Y soybean has an excellent white mold score, plus strong emergence, early growth and drought tolerance. It's a good no-till choice and adapts well to varying row widths.

* H23-16R2: This new 2.3 maturity RR2 variety has excellent stress tolerance and yield potential. Its medium bushy canopy helps close rows quickly, and is an excellent choice for no-till acres and tougher soils.

* H32-13R2:  A 3.2 maturity RR2 soybean with excellent yield potential, this is a tall robust plant adapts to varying row widths and plant populations. It's a good choice for full-season or double-crop acres.

* H37-14R2/STS:  A 3.7 RR2 variety is "stacked" with the SR trait  plus good stress tolerance for excellent yield potential. It's a tall variety with very good standability and performs well across most row widths.

* H40-16R2:  The new 4.0 maturity RR 2 variety shows excellent stress tolerance and performance potential in tough environments. Its strong agronomic package provides a unique combination of defensive traits and high yield potential.

TA Seeds
* TS1269R2: It's a new early Group 1, medium-height variety with the Genuity RR2 Y stack. This soybean has great emergence in tough soils and solid agronomics, good standability – all for strong yield potential. 

* TS3169R2: It's another new early Group 3 variety with RR2 Y genetics, a strong disease package plus strong emergence and standability scores and shattering resistance for high yield performance potential across wide-ranging geographies.

* TS3660: This new mid-Group 3 offers high yield potential with quick emergence, great standability and good canopy under conventional cropping.  And it exhibits great stress tolerance.

* TS3966R2XS: This is a new "super stacked" late Group 3, with Roundup Ready 2 Xtend/STS genetics, bringing tolerance to dicamba and glyphosate herbicides stacked with STS, and has excellent root rot resistance. It has great yield potential, and is a versatile double-crop option.

Note: Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System's launch is pending regulatory approval for component products.

* TS6569R2: A new mid-Group 4 plant with RR2 Y genetics, it offers widely adapted yield potential with root knot resistance, great emergence and standability. This soybean is an excellent choice for wide rows.

Syngenta/NK
* S25-L9: This new Group 2.5 medium-tall variety brings strong sudden death syndrome (SDS) protection plus a good sclerotinia white mold (WM) rating. It works on all row widths, plus has very good standability and an excellent green stem rating, making for an easy harvest.

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* S28-D3: A new 2.8 maturity, medium height bushy plant, it has a very good SDS rating plus a phytophthora root rot (PRR) package that makes it perform well across soil types, including heavier soils. It handles stress well. Very strong emergence scores make it a great choice for early-plant or no-till.

* S30-V6: This new 3.0 maturity soybean offers top-end yields across soil types. It'll perform very well as a full-season bean and will be a very good choice for double-cropping. Combining superb SDS resistance and very good PRR ratings, this medium-tall bean performs best on 7- to 15-inch rows and has good standability.

* S34-P7: This new 3.4 maturity variety will be a yield leader on highly productive soils. It has very good SDS and PRR ratings. The medium-short bean has excellent standability and will work best on 7- to-15-inch rows, and will respond to higher populations.

* S39-C4:  The new 3.9 maturity plant will be a yield leader in this maturity with excellent standability and a very good green stem rating for ease of harvest. With excellent SDS resistance and strong Frogeye Leaf Spot protection, it'll provide outstanding stress capacity and yield stability across variable soils.

Asgrow
* AG3832: It's a 3.8 relative maturity, medium-bushy soybean with excellent standability. Defensive traits include resistance to soybean cyst nematode (SCN) and multi-race PRR plus SDS tolerance.

* AG4135: A widely adapted early maturity Group 4 soybean with outstanding yield potential, its traits include resistance to PRR and SCN plus tolerance to SDS and Frogeye.

* AG4232: This early Group 4 product has the sulfonylurea herbicide tolerance trait, plus excellent growth on tougher soils and protection against SCN and PRR.

* AG4632: Consider this mid-maturity Group 4 soybean with strong growth and very high yield potential.  Defensively, it has resistance to SCN and PRR as well as high-level Frogeye tolerance.

* AG4835: A 4.8 maturnity soybean, this number has excellent full-season and double-crop yield potential. Its robust plant type offers good standability, resistance to SCN and PRR, plus good tolerance to SDS.

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Channel
 * 1808R2: It's a late Group 1 with the 2000R2 soybean in its background, for strong performance across different yield environments and multiple row widths. 

* 2108R2: This broadly adapted early Group 2 product is a good fit for no-till environments. It has an excellent defensive package with SCN, PRR, WM, and SDS, and iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) tolerance.

* 2309R2: This attractive soybean product with good IDC tolerance is a medium-bush plant type with good standability.

* 3009R2: The variety has strong yield potential with a Rps1c/3a stack for PRR resistance and good SDS and brown stem rot tolerance, plus has shown stable yield performance across most yield environments.

* 3509R2: This mid-Group 3 bean has good top end-yield potential and a good defensive package with charcoal rot and salt tolerance. It's a robust plant with good standability across most environments.

Editor's note: If your favorite brand doesn't appear here, ask your seed dealer why.