Giant Numbers
Dollars spent on plant breeding, research and variety development by the private sector in 2012. “In 2007, the private sector invested just over $56 million in plant breeding, research and variety development. In 2012, the investment was $99.5 million. The projection for 2013 was $106.5 million and the five-year projection for investment in 2017 is $147.5 million.”—Patty Townsend, CEO of the Canadian Seed Trade Association
Per cent compliance that Tim Welbanks, lead agronomist for Maizex Seeds, says refuge-in-a-bag allows. “As an agronomist I’m really excited about offering corn hybrids with refuge-in-a-bag. It really simplifies the grower’s selection,” he says. “We can talk about the hybrid that’s best for his field, on his farm, and really target those hybrids and we don’t have to worry about trying to figure out how to structure a 20 per cent refuge—that’s all taken care of. We’ve got 100 per cent compliance — it’s good for the durability of the technology.”
Per cent yield impact that Karsten Neuffer, global head of Seedcare for Syngenta, says the company’s new seed treatment nematicide, Clariva, brings to soybean growers. “It’s great because it gives farmers a solution to one of the major unsolved problems, which is cyst nematode,” he says. “Clariva is actually a biological seed treatment and probably the first that has a real proven benefit or impact on nematodes—it is lethal to nematodes and, as a result, it creates a yield impact of, on average, five per cent.” *Editor’s Note: Clariva is not yet registered in Canada.
Years that BrettYoung Seeds has been in business. “BrettYoung is not directly involved in genetics research or plant breeding; we partner with companies with world-class research programs that share our values and see value in our production and sales and marketing competencies. We have established these relationships over the last 80 years. We evaluate potential products based on data from our breeder partners’ own performance testing and we do in our own internally managed trials. An example would be our BCT trials, BrettYoung Comparison trials. These are farmer managed large scale, replicated comparisons of market standards vs new canola candidate varieties that form an integral part of our product commercialization decision process.
Number of platforms that Matthias Haug, head of SeedGrowth for Bayer CropScience, says the new brand is comprised of. “At Bayer we are proud to have a fully integrated on-seed application platform. Bayer SeedGrowth consists of four integrated areas of competencies,” he says. “First of all we talk about portfolio—our insecticides and fungicides based on chemical and biological modes of action. The second pillar is our coating. We have customized formulation and coating technology. The third one is equipment. We have our own company, Gustafson, which is delivering modern seed treatment application machinery. The fourth pillar is our service. We are doing testing, training and technical support for farmers and our 10 SeedGrowth centers worldwide are proving our global footprint.”
