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Tropical corn germplasms may hold answer to drought toleranceBy Jennifer M. Latzke
The answer to drought-tolerant corn may just come out of a research plot near the tiny town of Etter in the Texas Panhandle. During the Texas AgriLife Research and Texas Corn Producers Board Field Day at the North Plains Research Field in Etter, researchers debuted their work on breeding drought tolerant corns for food, feed and silage production. Wenwei Xu, associate professor of corn breeding at Texas Tech University, started off the field day by explaining to producers that there are a lot of different traits researchers can select for when breeding for drought-tolerant corn. "There's delayed silking, and pollination," he said. "For producers, though, it's yield. Looking good in the field is not enough. They want yields and low aflatoxin." Xu explained that drought-tolerant projects at the field near Etter have a goal of cutting water usage by 10 percent with the corn still making a profitable crop. And, to do so, they are looking at tropical varieties of corns from foreign sources, rather than traditional temperate varieties found in breeding programs in Iowa and the Midwest. "We're trying to develop a unique germplasm that's adapted to the Texas environment," Xu said. To do this, Xu and his colleagues use conventional and molecular breeding methods to transfer desirable genes from tropical and subtropical corns into temperate varieties. There are three test sites in Texas the researchers are using, including Halfway, Lubbock and Etter. Xu explained that in 2008, the researchers are studying about 500 hybrids, under varying watering levels using pivot irrigation. In his report, Xu explained that corn in the United States is primarily a child of two races of maize from more than 250 identified corns from around the world. "U.S. commercial hybrids only use about 5 percent of available corn germplasm," Xu explained. "Most of our breeding efforts start by crossing tropical corn with temperate elite lines and then selecting for desirable traits to broaden genetic diversity." The research aims to introduce useful genes from exotic corn to improve stress tolerance, agronomic productivity, disease resistance, insect resistance, and value-added grain characteristics. Some of the test plots at the Etter station include testcrosses of lines developed through the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) Project, which is a cooperative effort of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Ag Research Service, land grant universities, private industry, and other international and non-governmental organizations. It uses sources of germplasms from public and private contributors, from the United States and from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Thailand. The field day also showcased some of the work from the entomology sector. Jerry Michels, Entomology Research Program director for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service at Amarillo, discussed work being done to learn more about the migratory patterns of corn rootworms. The research, funded through the TCPB, collects western corn rootworm adults and uses data from the Texas High Plains Evapotranspiration Network. The researchers have created a field model that shows how the corn rootworms migrate according to site-specific meteorological data. Scott Averhoff, chairman of the TCPB, updated growers on the status of the South East Region Aflatoxin Program. He and Kerry Mayfield, senior research associate with Texas AgriLife Extension discussed how some of the tropical corn lines used in the Texas breeding programs may offer aflatoxin resistance. Bruce Spinhirne, a research associate at the station, presented research about silage yield and quality under different irrigation treatments. And, Brent Bean, agronomist with Texas AgriLife also discussed corn silage performance. After lunch, producers were updated on the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District's policy and initiatives, as well as the progress on the Ogallala Aquifer Initiative. Tom Sell, of Combest, Sell and Associates discussed the new farm bill via a teleconference call. Representatives from the major commercial corn hybrid companies were also on hand to discuss the performance of their hybrids in university trials at the station. T.K. Baker, with Monsanto, Robert Bowling, with Pioneer, and Peter Hill of Dow Agrosciences were on hand for producers' questions. Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807, or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com. 8/25/08 Date: 8/21/08 Advertisement
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