Crops
18 www.FarmProgress.com ◆ March 2011
Prairie Farmer
Refuge: It’s
in the bag
Boosting yield brings
added complexity for
seed buying
By WILLIE VOGT
L
OOKING forward in agriculture sometimes means
looking back for a little perspective. For many it was just
“yesterday” that biotech crops
hit the market, and in a historical
timeline, it was just 15 years ago
that the first biotech-enhanced
crops were commercialized.
That milestone signaled what has
become a significant change in
the way you buy seed for your operation, but where might this
be headed in the next decade?
This month we embark on
year two of the Farming 2020
project, looking at different
aspects of this business with
an eye toward changes you
should track for your farm. In
this installment, we look at the
seed industry.
to be much more localization
than we’re able to do now.”
Already, you’ve probably noticed a rising number of demo
plots and on-farm tests in your
county from seed companies. As
the complexity of the hybrids and
varieties offered has increased,
there’s been a rising need to
better match seed choices to soil
types and local conditions. And
soon you’ll see new tools being
put to work for that purpose.
Pioneer Hi-Bred is working on
Local, local, local
Talk with any major player in the
seed business and you’re going to
start hearing one key factor. You’ll
be able to pick from hybrids that
have been targeted to your farm.
“I think over the next decade,
we’re going to see an increased
ability to place hybrids and varieties on a specific field,” says
David Fischhoff, vice president,
technology strategy and development, Monsanto. “There’s going
a new system called Performance
Explorer, still under development this year, that will allow
an agronomist to model various
weather patterns against a hybrid’s performance capability. Joe
Foresman, marketing director,
North American Product Strategy,
explains: “This allows an agronomist working with a producer to
be able to monitor the impact of
weather patterns on the hybrids
in each field as the season progresses. For instance, the agronomist can check if there is extreme
heat or moisture stress during
pollination or grain fill and help
set performance expectations for
the grower.” And the system can
allow the agronomist to check
this against 50 years of weather
for the area, too.
Information technology will be
deployed to help you improve the
decision-making on your farm.
As most farmers buying seed
already know, the number of
new hybrids and varieties offered each year continues to
explode.
David Morgan, president,
Syngenta Seeds, notes that
while many growers like to
plant seed from one company,
there’s an increasing spread of
diversity. “2011 will be a pivotal
year — we will be able to offer
more new genetics,” he says.
“We’re offering 140 new hybrids,
more than ever brought to the
market before. These new hybrids are spread across maturities and geographies. It’s about
local adaptation.”
Matching those new hybrids
and varieties to specific fields
should help fine-tune the choice
pretty easily. Dow AgroSciences,
for example, has nearly 1 million
test areas available for evaluating
B
Key Points
■ The rising number of seed
choices adds complexity.
■ Local focus helps farmers pick
the right seed.
■ Plant breeding and biotech
traits push the envelope.
hybrids this year. “Localized data
is very important,” says Casey
Onstot, traits marketing manager,
Dow AgroSciences. “Some seeds
are very specific for a certain type
of ground. We’ve got nearly 1 million test plot and strip trial locations, and we have that data on a
localized level. A farmer in Iowa
does not care how a hybrid yields
in California.”
Traits, and biotech traits
While germplasm improvement
continues at all seed companies,
it’s easy for farmers to focus on
the key biotech traits brought to
market. Going forward, however,
you’re going to hear as much
about the germplasm as you do
the added trait technologies.
Fischhoff notes that the work
ahead will focus on both biotech
traits and on plant breeding.
“We’ll see an acceleration of
the number of traits we can deliver through biotechnology because of our ability to discover
genes and understanding what
IOTECH crops need nonbiotech refuge acres to
protect the technology and
avoid creation of resistant
insects. Farmers know this,
but planting 20% of your
crop to a non-insect-traited
refuge (or as much as 50%
in some parts of the country)
has made refuge planting a
challenge. The seed industry
is answering the call, and
during the next two years,
corn planting will change
with refuge-in-the-bag approaches.
The technology, and approach, is different with each
major seed player, but the
idea is to include the refuge
with the biotech seed at
planting. The non-insecttraited plants are interspersed
— at a lower percentage
— in the full field. The U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency is reviewing those applications, so you’ll see more
in 2012. Pioneer’s Optimum
AcreMax is a first-generation
refuge-in-the-bag strategy,
but you’ll see more advancements moving forward.
Dow’s Casey Onstot
notes that the company’s
SmartStax Refuge Advanced
concept will offer convenience and simplicity upon
registration. In fact, as seed
gets more complex the
refuge-in-the-bag approach
adds a level of simplicity.
“With a center-fill planter, or a
24-row planter, dumping two
or three boxes with refuge is
a challenge,” he notes.
Syngenta Seeds is
also moving ahead with its
strategy.
they do,” he says.
Foresman notes that looking
at the products coming to market
over the next eight years, there
will be a lot of work on the architecture of the plant. “And we’ll
make sure we understand the
interaction between the various
genes that are important to protect that plant. It’s about optimization,” he notes.
As you look at seed, you’ll be
making more demands on the
sellers as well. “The local rep will
need to have an understanding of
the competitive products available,” Onstot says. “From a trait
and technology standpoint there
are several offerings out there
and it’s important to understand
what those are — and the associated pros and cons.”
This feature was independently
produced by Farm Progress and
brought to you through the support
of Case IH.