AgriGold

AgReliant Research Efforts Continue to Grow

July 16, 2010

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Plant breeding is a combination of science, business and art, a researcher said at the recent AgriGold Specialty Products Conference. “It’s not just a matter of doing the science, but we also have a little bit of art involved in the selection and also the business of it,” said Tom Koch, AgReliant Genetics director of molecular breeding. The AgriGold seed brand is owned by parent company Ag- Reliant Genetics. “If we can’t have a product that can be sold, there is no sense of us being here and doing our research,” Koch said. He went on to describe the growth in AgReliant’s testing and research efforts over the past 10 years. Headquartered in Westfield, Ind., AgReliant Genetics is owned by two of the largest independent seed companies in the world. KWS and Limagrain Seeds bring more than 200 years of combined seed experience to AgReliant Genetics. When the partnership was formed in 1999-2000, AgReliant featured just over 200,000 plots. That has since grown to more than 705,000 plots. “The reason for that growth is AgReliant has been growing, and we’ve also been able to get our cost per plot down. So now we’re able to test more plots at a cheaper cost,” Koch said. “The plots are located throughout the major part of the Corn Belt. Our footprint mirrors the sales footprint of AgReliant.” “We also just got approved for a western expansion, so a new focus will be on the Kansas and Missouri market for research,” he added, noting the sales force will be expanded into those areas. Koch said AgReliant is unique in that its breeders and researchers are involved at all levels. “Of course, we’re very heavily involved at the initial level where we’re actually creating the population,” he said. “As we pass it along to the production and on to the sales team, the breeder is still involved at every single level. “As a breeder, when I create my new hybrid, I see it in that first year. Then I actually get to trail it the whole way through and talk to the growers along side the agronomists at field days. It is a little different than the other companies where they have different phases of breeding. “They would create the hybrid, pass it a long to somebody else to do the medium range testing and pass it along to somebody else to do the actual commercial scale testing. It is a successful model. No one is going to argue that these brands are not successful. “But AgReliant is the only one of the big brands that has this model, and we feel it’s very successful for our style and our system, and it works very well. “It really allows nice communications between the brands and research and also between the breeders and the agronomists. The breeders really have a good feel of what’s going on in the industry and what needs to be selected.” One example of how producers eventually see the benefits of this hands-on procedure is developments in improved test weight. It has been standard practice for agronomic research to focus on selecting for yields. “Obviously, if you’re a breeder, your first goal is yield, your second goal is yield and your third goal is yield. That’s what the farmer wants,” Koch said. “However, when you look more at yield we realize we’re getting more bushels per acre, but maybe we’re not getting it in the right grain quality and test weight. “In talking to the brands, talking to growers at field days, we realized within research this was an area we really need to focus on. So about two to three years ago, we started a concerted effort to improve our test weight and improving kernel quality. “Now we’re trying to optimize the selections for yield and test weight — the density of those kernels. We added access to some new germplasm. We’re trying to broaden our germplasm base. The best way to added test weight is to bring new test weight and grain quality in.” He said there has been some key germplasm lines in the United States that have “given us excellent test weight.” “Also, because we’re such a worldwide company, we’re able to access germplasm from those sources to improve our test weight,” he said. The company also has access to foundation lines to help improve hybrid performance. A unique feature of AgReliant is it is “the industry leader in dihaploid technology,” Koch said. “We’re not the biggest player. We know that. We don’t have the deep pockets of some of the leader chemical companies,” he said. “So we have to be creative in how we use our resources. If we’re not the biggest, we’ve decided that we’re going to be the fastest. “The best way to improve lines in plant breeding is either to increase your testing or increase the speed to market with the new germplasm. “We’re doing that with double haploid technology. We’re not the only one using this, but we’re the ones who use it the most successfully and the most efficiently.” Under the conventional breeding system, it typically takes five to seven years to develop a new breeding line. The doubled haploid system reduces that process to one to two years. “So that takes five years off of our cycle. That’s a cycle for breeding combination and we’re also using that in our trait conversion process to be able to get the newer genetics into the newer traits as fast as we can,” Koch said. “We’re able to shorten the testing cycle so every two years we’re getting new germplasm kicking out. So we have 100,000 lines that will be recycled every two years. “It’s all about speed. Every two years we’re increasing by five bushels. So in just half the time, we’ve increased it five bushels more. So it’s the speed that we’re really interested in and really excited about within AgReliant.” To help increase the speed of hybrid development, AgReliant also has plots in Argentina, Peru, Chile and Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico station has doubled in capacity over the past two years and now includes more than 400 acres and 30 fulltime employees. “Most of our doubled haploids are being produced in Argentina and Chile. When it’s winter and snowing up here, we’re recycling things fast down in South America,” Koch said. “We can get three cycles a year in Peru and three to four cycles per year in Puerto Rico, increasing that speed. “We’re the only company that has large scope germplasm development, but, as an independent, we can access any traits – Syngenta traits, Dow traits, Monsanto traits. So we can find the best germplasm and the best traits.” Prior to commercial release, AgReliant conducts stringent onfarm tests. The company has nearly 500 on-farm test strips, managed by researchers and planted by the sales team throughout the Midwest and Canada. “This is our pre-commercial testing. This is the gateway. Once the hybrid hits this, it will either make or break that hybrid. It either goes commercial or it doesn’t go commercial,” Koch said. The commercial testing compares top experimental hybrids to the AgReliant commercial checks. “If it’s not going beat what we already have and are selling, there is no sense of us pushing it forth and adding to the production plant,” Koch said. “We also compare it to competitive hybrids. We want to know how good it is against competitors so that the sales team has some solid research data. With 400 to 500 strip tests, that’s quite a bit of solid research data to have available. “It’s on-farm data and on-farm conditions, and is actually as the farmer would grow it. That way we can see actually how these hybrids are going to perform within the farm setting.”

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