Asgrow has introduced its 2008 class of 16 new Elites products, all high-performing soybeans providing farmers with excellent yield potential and consistent performance and plant health.

“Asgrow products are evaluated by our genetic purity specialists,” explains Betsy Hill, U.S. Asgrow soybean technical manager at Monsanto. “They take extra steps at the onset of the breeding process to provide soybean farmers with better beans that have the genetic purity and consistency to deliver higher yield potential at harvest.”

“Asgrow has access to one of the world's largest, most diverse germplasm pools,” says Tom Schaefer, U.S. soybean marketing manager for Monsanto. “Asgrow genetic purification and breeding refinements are focused on plant health, disease resistance and yield characteristics resulting in more than 15 new products each year.”

Additionally, this year's lineup includes six new Vistive low-linolenic products, which offer premiums to farmers, as well as the opportunity to meet the growing consumer demand for healthier diets.

For Delta soybean farmers, two of the new 2008 Asgrow Elites products are:

• AG4405 — A mid-Group 4 Roundup Ready product that is ideal for conservation-tillage. Features multi-race Phytophthora protection with the Rps1c gene, in addition to resistance to Race 3 soybean cyst nematode. It is suited for positioning in fields where southern stem canker and sudden death syndrome have been problems in the past.

• AG4605 — Another mid-Group 4 Roundup Ready product, AG4605 features excellent standability, emergence and no-till adaptability, in addition to very good iron chlorosis.