b'Want to watch the full episode of Seed Speaks? Check out the full episode at seedworld.com/why-plant-breeders-need-to-know-who-their-customer-is.A Game-Changing VarietyDepends on Customer FeedbackPlant breeders discuss why it matters knowing who your customer is.Marc ZienkiewiczWHAT MAKES Agame-changing variety?The relationship between the breeding program In a nutshell, it needs to eclipse the currentlyand the seed company is important for the logistics grown varieties either by yield, disease resistance orof deciding when in fact to make that investment, some other trait to fill a market need. and how large to make that investment.If you think about growers, a lot of them haveAccording to Pauls, in the early stagesas the their tried-and-true variety that they like to grow,company is establishing a market for the varietyand you need to have enough advantage overconstant conversations go back and forth between other varieties to draw them away from that oldthe breeding program and the seed company. favorite and try out the new one, says Tom Smith,Hensall Co-op, the company that was responsible a retired Canadian plant breeder who co-createdfor the commercialization of Dynasty, was critical to the Dynasty dark red kidney bean long with fellowits success, and that had a lot to do with promoting breeder Peter Pauls at the University of Guelph. it to its growers.Pauls knows what hes talking about. DynastyOur longstanding relationship with HensallIstvan Rajcan.has become the dominant dark red kidney bean inCo-op was key in its journey to becoming a suc-Ontario and has become hugely popular outside ofcessful variety.that province, going on to become one of the defini- For Istvan Rajcan, soybean breeder at the tive kidney beans around. If youve ever had a bowlUniversity of Guelph, creating a truly game-of chili in North America, youve likely eaten Dynasty. changing variety involves a breeder possessing Based on yield data generated through Ontariobusiness skill, which he says has been key to his Pulse Crop Committee variety trials, Dynasty con- successa piece of advice he learned many years sistently outperforms Red Hawk from the Michiganago from Croatian plant breeder Vladimir Puskaric, State University breeding program, showing anwho was a maize breeder with Pioneer Hi-bred in impressive 613 lb/acre advantage (based on theWoodstock, Ontario, Canada.five-year average) over Red Hawk. Puskaric said that a breeder should know who With current prices for kidney beans, thatshis or her customer is, and that has stuck with about $324.89 more per acre going back intoRajcan, who has developed 69 soybean varietiesPeter Pauls.growers pockets if they grow Dynasty, says Ontarioincluding OAC Kent, which won the Seed of the Bean Growers Project Manager Jennifer Mitchell. Year Award in 2008.Its performance advantages are clear, but ofThe applied research aspect of a breeders job course its more than just yield that makes a varietymeans that we are developing cultivars that we successful in the market. hope will be grown by the farmers. If theyre not There are lots of steps in between the releasegrown my farmers, its a wasted effort in a sense. of a new variety and its registration and its availabil- So, we need to constantly communicate with our ity to the farmer. In particular, you need to increasecustomers to find out what their needs are, he says.the seed from a few kilograms that we might haveTheyre good at telling us what traits are impor-in our breeding program, into the tons of seed thattant or they think they will be important several are required in order to seed farmers fields. Thatyears down the road, and then we adjust our goals commercialization step is done by companies andand selection procedures to achieve those goals.the companies license the right to increase the seedRajcan, Pauls and Smith are all recipients of and then sell it to the farming community, notesCanadian Plant Breeding Innovation awards thisTom Smith.Pauls. year.SW64/ SEEDWORLD.COMJUNE 2022'