Plant Breeders, Farmers Must Team Up
DES MOINES. IA It takes
two to tango. And, in the dance of
America’s com from hybrid seed
development to an export com
modity, both plant breeders and
farmers need to watch every step
for quality.
The plant breeder leads the
quality quest with careful genetic
selection. The farmer follows with
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BUILDING SYSTEMS
proper grain handling, combine
settings and good storage
management
At issue is foreign buyers’
acceptance of the quality of the
grain American farmers produce.
The prize is the maintenance of
acquisition of another share point
of the world com market. Each
share point of the international
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com market is worth $50.2 million
to the U.S. economy. Fanners,
elevators, terminals, and transpor
tation service suppliers are
impacted most directly by the gain
or loss of a market share point.
“In the past there hasn’t been a
lot of work done in the area of
grain quality,” says Dr. Rick
McConnell, director of the
Department of Com Breeding at
Pioneer Hi-Bred International,
Inc. “Breeders have been more
concerned about yield and standa
bilily. However, that is changing
and we are taking a closer look at
what we can do to produce better
grain quality.”
This focus on breeding for qual
ity works hand in hand with con-
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To Improve Grain Quality
Unucd on-farm crop management
Charles Hurburgh, associate pro
fessor of agricultural engineering
at lowa State University, has
devoted much of his research
effort to fine-tuning grain hand
ling procedures.
Quality Deterioration
“Many studies have been con
ducted on grain quality and they
all basically have come to the
same conclusion,” says Hurburgh.
“There is a steady increase in the
breakage of com every time it is
handled.
“Each time com is moved and
dropped, you can figure on a 0.4 to
0.5 percent increase in broken ker
nels. In the course of exporting
com, it can be mechanically hand
led eight to 10 times from the farm
to the end user. Also drying grain
artificially further compounds
quality problems,” he adds.
“We also know that improper
harvesting and drying also can
create some quality problems.
• f
Each time corn Is moved and dropped, the number of bro
ken kernels increases by 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent. The
Wisconsin Breakage Tester was developed to measure
corn hybrids’ resistance to breakage.
These come in the form of stress
cracks or internal fissures in the
kernel, which cause breakage in
subsequent handling.”
McConnell agrees that better
methods of handling and storing
can reduce the amount of broken
grain, but says breeding for qual
ity and transportability may give
farmers longer-lasting benefits.
But developing hybrids that
yield a more durable grain for
shipment may take time.
“In our com breeding program,
we have to deal with hundreds of
genotypes,” says McConnell.
“Until we find some method of
screening a lot of germplasm for
grain quality traits, our hands are
somewhat tied.”
Hurburgh and others at lowa
State are working on instrumenta
tion that will help breeders screen
germplasm for quality traits, but it
may be five to 10 years before the
technology is available.
(Turn to Page C 8)
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