Show Notes
In today’s episode, what does it take to build a world record hybrid? And why does it take so long to develop new hybrids? We follow the journey of the seed from inbreds to hybrids to traits to production to commercial products.
Our guide on this journey of the seed will be Corteva Agriscience digital seed lead and distinguished laureate Dean Podlich. You heard from Dean in our last episode about the history of agriscience innovation as it relates to genetics. Today, you’ll get a peak into what all goes into the latest and greatest in crop genetics, specifically as it relates to corn. Dean describes all of this work, this journey of a seed to preparation for the main event, which is what happens on farms every year across the world.
“ This is what drives this long-term genetic gain: this constant obsession about creating new variation, measuring it in all the ways that we described, and identifying ones that are going to be superior on the farm and continuing that process over and over again.” - Dean Podlich
Virginia farmer David Hula joins the show to highlight what can happen when quality genetics meets excellent management practices. Hula earned world record corn yield of 623.8439 bushels per acre with a hybrid from Corteva Agriscience.
“ That is probably the most stressful time that I have is picking the hybrids. Because we try to position hybrids for particular acres.” - David Hula
The journey of a seed is rigorous, nuanced, and complex. It starts with a seemingly infinite number of possibilities and involves slowly narrowing those down through what Dean Podlich describes as a gauntlet process to eventually end up with a couple dozen products with potential.
Some takeaways from this episode include: There is so much that goes into the journey of a seed, from the germplasm to prediction and selection to hybrids to transgenes and the regulatory process that comes with that to production and commercialization. It’s a multi-year global process that requires an enormous effort along the way. The analogy of the R&D process being like preparing for the Olympics. All of the work that goes into the agriscience and innovation is important, but the race still needs to be run on the farm. David Hula’s paradigm of recruiting and surrounding themselves with the right team. It fits well with this Olympics theme. These relationships are more than just company/customer, they should be a trust-based collaborative effort to maximize productivity and profitability on the farm. Agriscience Explained is a podcast brought to you by Corteva Agriscience. Host Tim Hammerich visits with both scientists and farmers about how agricultural innovations are discovered, developed and deployed on the farm.
More from Agriscience Explained
Please send us your feedback on the podcast: [email protected] In this episode, we look back on the past 100 years, and highlight what will carry over into this next chapter in the company’s history. Corteva Agriscience chief technology and digital officer Sam Eathington and some really special guests discuss the past, present and future of agriscience innovation.
Dr. Carla Yerkes joins us to help us tell the story of Rinskor and explain the process of herbicide innovation and the persistence and creativity it takes to develop new solutions for farmers. Yerkes is a research biologist at Corteva Agriscience and has a Ph.D. in herbicide physiology. She has spent about half of her 30 year career in herbicide discovery research and the other half in herbicide trait discovery.
What is happening in agriscience today that we will be talking about 100 years from now? While it’s impossible to answer that question with certainty, there is a technology that has the potential to impact our industry in the next century as much or even more than hybridization changed the game over the past century. That technology is genome editing. The promise of this technology is very real and today you’re going to hear firsthand accounts of what changed in 2012 and 2013 to make all of this possible, what did it look like to test the technology in plant breeding, and what does the strategy look like to turn this science into better solutions.
In today’s episode, we’re following a molecule around the world, from being discovered in Japan to being developed in the United States to becoming a solution for farmers in the United Kingdom. Joining us is one of those farmers in the UK, Julian Gibbons. Julian has seen a variety of fungicide solutions come and go for important wheat diseases like Septoria tritici, or speckled leaf blotch. He’s really excited about the potential for a relatively newly registered product derived from a natural compound called Inatreq Active™. And the story of the need for Inatreq and the road to getting this product to farmers is the focus of today’s episode.
We celebrate the 100th year anniversary of Pioneer Seeds, and take a look back at the history of hybridization. The process may seem simple: to take two varieties or even species and cross them together to create more desirable offspring. But the concept of controlled hybridization, intentionally transferring pollen from a chosen male parent to a chosen female parent, is relatively new in the history of agriculture. But it has been nothing short of revolutionary.