Tyrone Flyer

Tyrone forage soybean brings out the potential in your deer cattle herd. The full season soybean has a "1-2 punch" of protein and biomass.

Soybean breeder and geneticist, Dr. Tom Devine, developed the Tyrone forage soybean variety.  It was a culmination of 19 years of work to develop the superior forage soybean.

Tyrone is a maturity group 7, indeterminate soybean that was selected for its height and bushy characteristic that is key to producing vast amounts of forage.  The indeterminate nature allows it to keep growing later and tolerate browsing better than Ag type soybeans.

“Tyrone forage soybeans can be used for grazing, hay, or silage over a wide geographic area of the United States. Tyrones are superior in forage production compared to short, conventional grain-type soybean plants that are not well suited for high forage yields,” says Devine.

Can reach heights of 7 feet tall

Soybean farmers have had good success growing Tyrone forage soybeans for grain were heavy deer browsing can be a problem.

It's disease package makes it resistant to certain common soybean diseases such as Phytophthora.

Well suited for dairy and cattle forage where herbicide use is an utmost consideration.  A great conventional forage soybean that will add dollars to your bottom line.

Dr. Tom Devine
A leader in forage research and breeding

Worked as a graduate assistant on the forage breeding project at Penn State while earning the MS degree. Earned his Ph.D. at Iowa State University working on the forage breeding project.

After earning his Ph.D. in 1967 he was employed by the ARS/USDA at Cornell University breeding the forage legume birdsfoot trefoil for the northeast U.S.  In 1969 Dr Devine transferred to Beltsville, MD to breed alfalfa.  At Beltsville he bred and released the alfalfa cultivar ARC (named for the Agricultural Research Center). ARC alfalfa was the first alfalfa variety with high resistance to anthracnose disease.  This variety was an important advance in alfalfa breeding. After ARC, Dr. Devine moved on to Soybean breeding and genetics at Beltsville and bred the forage soybean cultivars including Tyrone and later Tara. Dr. Devine also bred two hairy vetch cultivars for winter cover crop use; Purple Bounty and Purple Prosperity. He retired from the USDA after almost 42 years of service.  Specialty Seed, Inc. is proud to be carrying the Tyrone variety of forage soybean developed by Dr. Devine.

For more information on Tyrone Forage Soybeans:

• Auburn University
• Hay and Forage Magazine
• U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

How Tyrone forage soybeans got their name

The name Tyrone is from a rural town in Pennsylvania near State College.  The town was named from County Tyrone in Ireland.  Tyrone is a gaelic name meaning the land of Owen.  Tyr means land and Owen was an ancient Irish King from the era before Christ.