There 9 s research in a bag of hybrid seed corn •LANCASTER - Agricultural (.-'“research and the results of that research —are vital to the success of every farmer in American, although most farmers aren’t familiar with the - “behind-the product” activities. There’s more money, manpower and effort behind an improved product when it hits the market than most would guess. For example, the total effort behind the search for better hybrid seed is large and complex. At last count, there were hun dreds of seed companies marketing hybrids and varieties of various crops. The American Seed Trade Association has well over 700 companies registered as members. Not all companies conduct research, but the effort is' still impressively large. The largest effort comes from , DeKalb Agßesearch, Inc., which tfbhiploys hundreds of people, who iJPe involved in one way or.another Xm the search for better hybrids. - The number of people on the ’ DeKalb payroll last year in the com research department, alone, was nearly 1000. According to Charles Krull, vice president of com research at DeKalb, employee numbers - are H |P f . S 5 S ?? WE Dim CLARK-BOBCAT SALESt BARTS and SERVICE. j- A A K A A .A A > s s s s § £ A A , A A A A A A A A A A £ £ a s a a A A A A A A A* A A A A A A A A A A A - a a a a A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A , A A A A Call us for BOBCAT SALES or rental Call us for BOBCAT SERVICE fact* •tr led ' il ' A A A A A •a a A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A /actory-trairn. , personnel back m operation Call tis for BOBCAT PARTS .. We have parts availability from the shelf. V M V ** V M V V W V V V V V V V V V V M V M w ** v V V V V V V V w V V M V V V V V M V V V M V V v y v v 9 M ** V V V M V M V V V V V V M V V W V -, ~ V v II if A A y>v GWiAUH *AOf ITS 55 5? S S >” Call for a demonstration! fvr\ 5 § S S y -4500 Paxton St. • Harrisburg, PA (717) 554-3031 5 5 m~ S Route3o9(Drums)•Hazleton,PA (717)788-11275 5 w g S CHIRK | CLARK MELROE DIVISION f < i f«<<(««C«««««« << «< WW<(<K<{(({<<<c<((<<<(W{<<<<{<(<<({<<<{<<<(<<<<<<<CW{<(<<^v^ l^ jJ tf r Bobcat 610. 1978 model, Wisconsin gas engine, 54” utility bucket, exc. cond. Bobcat 720, 1979 model, hydrostatic drive, consin gas engine, 60” utility bucket, exc. cond. not the only means of measuring research efforts. . “There are three basic ways to measure a research effort. There’s the number of people, the amount of money and then, there is the effort itself or what a company is actually doing to search for better hybrids.” The com research department conducts actual breeding work and testing at 15 major locations across the country, but the marketing, production and foundation seed departments, not to mention farmers, are all running additional research and test plots that number into the thousands. To give you an idea of size, try these numbers on. The firm planted 'nearly 135,000 nursery rows of test com last year. Regardless of how long those rows are, if they were m 30-inch rows those nursery rows would cover a field 64Lmiles wide. Nearly two thirds of these rows are pollinated by hand, plant by plant. In addition to that effort, they operate over 200,000 replicated research plots from which detailed notes on percentage of root lodging, stalk lodging, yield, silk date, ear drop, tassel date and moisture are taken. Our are ready to put you USED BOBCATS Call us for more details subject to prior sale or rental. in total, that’s more than one third of a million plots of com that researchers at just one seed company are studying. Selection procedures are so intense and the business is so competitive thattmly about one of every one thousand hybrid looked at each year is good enough to be advanced to even the next phase of testing. It can take up to 12 years for farmers to have seed available to them from the time the original crosses are made. Seed companies can take steps to speed up that process by two to three years—like taking the seed to Hawaii or Flonda, where breeders can utilize long growing seasons to produce two crops instead of one. DeKalb, for instance, has two of these locations—one in Hawaii and one in Florida, where yet an ad ditional 25,000 nursery rows are studied. As large as these efforts seem, the story is not yet complete. At least a handful of the major companies and nearly all major land grant colleges have a com plete set of complementary specialists. Krull says, “We operate all of these programs as do a few other companies. We have pathology, CLARK bobcat 2 2 s s 5J 55 V ** V V V M M M 9 v v ** M 9 v V V V V V V v s* V M V V V V V V M V M V m y V V 9 y M V M V M V M ** V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V 9 y **« V V V V M V M V V V V V V ** V v V ** M v v V M Wis- physiology, entomology, germ plasm resources, nutrition and data processing.” While the company’s total research efforts are aimed at providing farmer’s with higher yielding hybnds, many of the contributions came from com plementary programs. Improved resistance to disease, insect and drought are some of these con tributions. For instance, hybrids with drought tolerance are well on their way to being marketed, a direct contribution of the physiology program. A new race of northern com leaf blight was discovered and resistance found before it did any significant damage; part of a pathologists job. The germplasm resources group conducts a world wide search for new and different germplasm and then screens for the better ones. Nutritionists are NEED \ MORE ROOM? () Read The Classified c*m* m y« u euvs. m*v« *via/ Real Estate Ads __ I *- COCALICO CONCRETE Ready Mix Concrete For Ev«ry Purpose SERVICE IS OUR BUSINESS • Quality Controlled Concrete • Radio Equipped Fleet • Mix Uniformity thru Automation • Saturday Morning Delivery For Prompt Courteous Service Call CCCAUCO CONCRETE (215) 267-7591 .A division of M !I Toll Free (800) 422-8107 Mil MI COCALICO COMCRCTE R D 3, DENVER, PA CRUSHED STONE • READY MIXED CONCRETE • ASPHALT PAVING WE HAVE A COMPLETE CORN AND SOYBEAN LIQUID BLEND FERTILIZER PROGRAM FOR YOU ALSO A FULL LINE OF CHEMICALS FOR SPRING SPRAYING. CHECK OUR PRICES. ; ASGROWSOYBEAN ' , SEEPCORN \ 4268,3860,3127, etc. Check our complete Fertilizer Program. Fluid Fertilizer applied by our Flotation Equipment. • Bulk Dry Fertilizer • Lime Spreading • Spreading of Liquid & • Complete Soil Testing Dry Fertilizer Program • Baler Twine • Alfalfa & Clover Seeds RD 2, Cochranville, Penna. 19330 PHONE: Office 215-869-8201 215-869-8006 215-932-3307 Paul 215-444-5170 Located on Rt. 41 Between Avondale and Cochranville Warehouse at Russellville. incaster Farming, Saturday, May 2,1981-05 searching for protein quantity, amino acid balance and other factors figure into nutritional quality. Entomologists strive to keep pests away from com fields by providing more bred-m resistance. And naturally, with all this to accomplish, you need a computer or two and a scattering of statisticians that’s where data processing gets into the act. Proven techniques? A good program? Well, it seems to be working. Com yields have in creased from 25 bushels per acre back in the ‘3os to 109 bushels in 1979 an impressive track record considering about half of that increase can be attributed to genetics or research. That’s a good indication agricultural research is paying off where it’s needed most down on the farm.
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