Agro Perspectiva

Monsanto's Farms Are Just Getting Warmed Up for Planting

19.05.2010 10:45 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — Planting is in full swing for many farmers around the country. And while farmers are planting the latest commercial hybrids and biotech traits right now, Monsanto’s research farms are gearing up to plant the traits that farmers will use in the future. After potential biotech traits are identified in the research facilities in St. Louis, the traits are tested in the field for the first time at Monsanto’s trait development farms. These farms, called hubs within the company, are where our crop researchers find out which traits perform the best to advance to the next stage of the pipeline. «We have a certain number of hubs that work with early phase pipeline material,» said Jerseyville research associate Sean Evans. «We have several hubs that try to encompass most of the growing environments across the Midwest.» One of our hubs is not in the Midwest. In Davis, California, Monsanto researches drought-resistant corn. Why is Monsanto testing corn thousands of miles from the Midwest? «The big reason that you do drought-resistant corn research in Davis, California, is that it really doesn’t rain between March and November,» said Jared Wilson, research associate for the site. «So you’re pretty much guaranteed whatever water you want to put on, is the water the gets put on.» Monsanto tests the traits to see how they perform in stressful growing conditions. Basically, we are trying to replicate what farmers experience each year on their farm. We grow the traits across several locations that have unique weather conditions to get the best data. Troy, Ohio, Station Manager Jeff Taylor has the opposite problem than Jared. Usually, Ohio receives its fair share of rain. And Ohio’s soils hold the water much more than other areas of the country. «Ohio has a lot of tight, lakebed soils, heavy clay content, so we don’t dry out near as quickly,» Taylor said. «Typically our soils lay cooler and wetter longer, so we have a much more stressful environment.» One of the key traits that Jeff’s team is testing is Monsanto’s Nitrogen Use Efficiency. Nitrogen fertilizer is applied to a field prior to planting. It gives corn plants a boost to produce a stronger plant, which can help to produce more grain. However, each corn plant doesn’t pick up, or utilize, all of the nitrogen in its area because of various factors. This trait could help plants use nitrogen more efficiently by either increasing yield under normal nitrogen conditions or stabilizing yield under low nitrogen conditions. «One of the big projects we’re working on is nitrogen use efficiency,» Taylor said. «What we found was our soils have a lot lower holding capacity for nitrogen, residual content, and that gives us a more stressful environment to look at some of those traits and really demonstrate their unique advantages, moreso than other sites that have higher, more prairie soils that are typically more fertile.» The Wichita hub handles several traits for research. In Western Kansas, farmers receive about 15 to 20 inches of rain per year, so it allows Monsanto to test its first-generation drought-tolerant corn trait much easier than in Illinois, which receives 30 to 40 inches of rain per year. Because all of the land is irrigated, controlling water application gives Chad Becker’s team additional data points for research. «Wichita is an important hub because we can do a lot of different research,» said Chad Becker. «The drought (trait) is a huge thing within the company, so having western Kansas available to us to do a lot of that research is extremely important. Central Kansas, also, you can get nitrogen work. Our soils and everything is very conducive to nitrogen research. Plus we’ve got irrigation. Everything that we do has irrigation, so we can take that variable out of the equation.»