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Working Together on Plant Breeding

Public and private plant breeders believe there are opportunities to work together on plant breeding.

While the public and private plant breeding sectors may seem separate, there’s a lot of work the two can collaborate on and do. While they may focus on different sectors or parts of plant breeding, both see opportunities to work together to create the crops farmers want and need.

“In the private sector, plant breeding is a factory to continue delivering new and improved products for the farmers. Collaborating in new technologies and joining efforts on the next thing — that’s something that could be done with the public sector,” Luis Verde, the product development director for North America at Corteva Agriscience, says during the March 8 episode of Seed Speaks.

Corteva, as of the big four plant breeding companies, has access to a wealth of resources when it comes to plant breeding. For Verde, he’s aware of that and knows not everyone working in plant breeding has the opportunities he does, which to him is part of the reason why he sees collaboration between the public and private plant breeding worlds as being important.

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Residue Management

Video: Residue Management

Residue Management conservation practice manages the amount, orientation, and distribution of crop and other plant residue on the soil surface year-round while limiting soil-disturbing activities used to grow and harvest crops in systems where the field surface is tilled prior to planting. This video explores how Ryan McKenzie implemented this conservation practice on his farm in Samson, Alabama.

Practice benefits:

• Increases organic matter

• Improves air quality

• Decreases energy costs

• Reduces erosion

• Improves soil health

The Conservation at Work video series was created to increase producer awareness of common conservation practices and was filmed at various locations throughout the country. Because conservation plans are specific to the unique resource needs on each farm and also soil type, weather conditions, etc., these videos were designed to serve as a general guide to the benefits of soil and water conservation and landowners should contact their local USDA office for individual consultation.