Agriscience Explained

• Too Tall? A Look at Reduced Stature Corn

   In today's episode: Does corn really need to be so tall? It's time to explore this concept of reduced stature corn, otherwise commonly referred to as short corn. When you picture a mature cornfield, I imagine you're probably thinking of tall green stalks, towering overhead, and there are some agronomic advantages and disadvantages to this.So some corn breeders are developing varieties that are intentionally shorter. One of those breeders is Dr. Sarah Lira, who you've already heard from on this show back on episode eight when she was talking about perennial ground cover. “ And that's basically the system we're setting up for breeders with short corn, is that they can focus on selecting on yield and they can focus on selecting on yield in higher densities. So when you can plant the plants in a higher density, they're not going to get tall and fall over. So you can continue to select on yield more aggressively than we've ever been able to do before.” - Dr. Sara LiraSarah has also been working on some shorter corn varieties and this concept of reduced stature corn. It has a lot of farmers intrigued. Blake Johnson is one of those farmers. He's a fifth generation corn farmer in Nebraska.“ Probably the most exciting thing that we've been looking at on the horizon that is not here yet is short statured corn, because when we're in the high yielding environment. We're wanting to push populations. A lot of times when you push that population, those plants are gonna fight in that competitive environment and actually get taller than they should.” - Blake JohnsonSome takeaways from this episode include: The very real problem of lodging, which is creating real demand for reduced stature corn. The idea that reduced stature corn could actually have just as much plant residue as standard corn. It’s definitely interesting to get a glimpse into the research and development pipeline, and encouraging to hear of the first trait reaching the field in the coming years.Agriscience Explained is brought to you by Corteva Agriscience and hosted by Tim Hammerich. This show is produced by Clint Pilcher, Rayda Krell and Ann Leonard. Jaime Hammerich and Grant Bolton edit these podcasts, and the music was composed by Dmitri Volkov. Subscribe for more Agriscience Explained: From Science to Solutions.

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• Science Makes Active Ingredients More Active

  In today’s episode we dive into a critical topic that is usually hidden in plain sight: formulation science.It’s easy to think of agricultural products as straightforward chemistries that get sprayed from a tank. An insecticide is an insecticide; a fungicide is a fungicide. The active ingredient is what is going to give us the outcome we want. But a product is not just made up of that active ingredient. How a particular product is formulated really makes all of the difference.“ When it comes to formulations on the farm, I'm not your typical scientist…I rely on that person that is selling me that product to really give me good advice. And I've never really had a problem with formulations until this last year.” - Lance Lillibridge Lucky for all of us, there are people who do want to be that scientist. John Atkinson is one of them. John leads the global application technology research and development team at Corteva Agriscience. For the past 13 years or so, he has developed countless formulations for herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc. Each one comes with its own unique challenges and approaches. ”We're trying to troubleshoot the product and (trying) to understand, before we set the final composition…What are the challenges the farmer is going to encounter? How do we design a robust, reliable product? And just really try to think from the grower's perspective and really understand the use case for the product to ultimately develop a strong product.” - John AtkinsonSome Takeaways from this episode include:This field of formulation science is as overlooked as it is critical. Very few of us think about formulation science but every one of us relies on experts like John. New technology continues to change the game. Whether that’s biologicals, precision spray equipment or artificial intelligence, this formulation science area is going to need to continue to adapt.The care that Lance, John, and everyone in this industry has about the impact of farming on people and the environment is evident. Whether it is safety, water quality or soil health, these considerations come up time and again.Agriscience Explained is brought to you by Corteva Agriscience and hosted by Tim Hammerich. This show is produced by Clint Pilcher, Rayda Krell and Ann Leonard. Jaime Hammerich and Grant Bolton edit these podcasts, and the music was composed by Dmitri Volkov. Subscribe for more Agriscience Explained: From Science to Solutions.

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• Permanent Cover Crops Take Root

  In today’s episode: what might it look like to create a better cover crop system? A group of researchers and farmers are seeking to answer this question.Cover crops can help reduce soil erosion, preserve soil biology, build organic matter, suppress weeds and improve water and nutrient retention. So why do fewer than 10% of US row crop acres incorporate cover crops? There is risk involved. The seed costs money and if the weather doesn’t cooperate, you can waste precious capital and not even get a stand. And some cover crops can be difficult to terminate, requiring herbicides, mowing, crimping or tillage, all of which can add costs and labor. “Rather than trying to breed species that are directly competing for the same resource: light water, nutrients…The proper way is actually to breed them so that they're living in their own niche.” - Sara Lira, Ph.D.How can advances in science and management help them to become a viable option for more farmers? That’s the question Dr. Sara Lira and colleagues have been asking. Sara is a research scientist at Corteva Agriscience who has been working with farmers like Chris Gaesser, who you will also hear from on this episode. Chris farms in southwest Iowa and has conducted on-farm collaborations with Sara over the years. “There's always something green on the ground. You're going to (have) a lot less nutrient leaching. The weed suppression is there, so you're creating a very stable environment…and ideally it's saving you some passes throughout the year.” - Chris GaesserSome Takeaways from this episode include:This perennial groundcover approach is a novel way of incorporating more perennials into our existing farming systems without sacrificing yield. There is no silver bullet in agriculture. Although this approach seems to be working great in a strip till system, it’s still not as effective in no-till. This emphasizes the need for more science and more solutions to fit a variety of situations. This is a great example of why farmer/researcher collaboration is so important. The solutions of the future will come from cutting edge science and technology, but also improvements in management practices and the ability to put all the pieces together on your individual farm.Agriscience Explained is brought to you by Corteva Agriscience and hosted by Tim Hammerich. This show is produced by Clint Pilcher, Rayda Krell and Ann Leonard. Jaime Hammerich and Grant Bolton edit these podcasts, and the music was composed by Dmitri Volkov. Subscribe for more Agriscience Explained: From Science to Solutions.

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• Meet CARL: Your Digital Agronomist

  Digital agriculture, decision science and generative artificial intelligence (AI) all converge into a new tool for agronomists and seed sales reps. How will this enhance the way trusted advisors make recommendations to farmers? Imagine you're an agronomist traveling from farm to farm. You have an assistant riding along in your passenger seat who can answer your every question about product information, yield history, etc. They're with you all of the time and they seem to be able to recall any relevant piece of information you want or need in seconds. They have access to a vast network of pooled knowledge covering many years and many different geographies that can easily be condensed into a casual conversation. By now most of us have heard of ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic or one of the other chat-type AI interfaces. These tools utilize generative AI because they can predict patterns in data and use them to provide information that is relevant and tailored to specific questions and requests. Corteva Agriscience has recently introduced CARL, a new AI-driven tool to help agronomic advisors. Matt Smalley, Ph.D. has led the effort to get a new generative AI tool into the hands of Corteva agronomists and sales reps. In today’s episode, we’re going to not only talk about this tool, but also better understand where digital fits in the modern farm, and what difference artificial intelligence could make in our ability to execute better agronomic decisions.  ”Project CARL stands for Corteva Agronomic Research Library… it's a generative model, kind of like ChatGPT, that's been augmented with Corteva agronomic research library.  And so it has increased skill in answering questions in the agronomic realm. And it's also been augmented with Pioneer product information.” - Matt Smalley, Ph.D.Agronomy Innovation Manager Mike Anderegg is an early user of CARL, and part of the team helping to get it into the hands of Corteva Agronomists. “ The data influx that we have had for a number of years has raised the question: now what do we do with it? …We are starting to discover what we can do with it…I think we're still just scratching the surface of what we can do with that next level of intelligence.” - Mike AndereggSome Takeaways from this episode include:Corteva’s shift from selling digital products to implementing decision science in every aspect of the business. It was the right move at the right time, and I opened the door for something like Project CARL when the time was right. Generative artificial intelligence is changing the way we interact with data. Tools like CARL are removing so many friction points from the old way of accessing data. Just chat with it like you would chat with a mentor or colleague to find the answer you want. Like gene editing, we are just barely starting to see the early signs of what will ultimately be possible. As these tools emerge, they don’t displace the agronomist or other trusted advisors. Those relationships are more important than ever. But the most vulnerable to these big technological shifts are those that refuse to embrace it. Agriscience Explained is brought to you by Corteva Agriscience and hosted by Tim Hammerich. This show is produced by Clint Pilcher, Rayda Krell and Ann Leonard. Jaime Hammerich and Grant Bolton edit these podcasts, and the music was composed by Dmitri Volkov. Subscribe for more Agriscience Explained: From Science to Solutions.

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  31:22
• Gene Editing: Pathway to Progress

  In today’s episode, we look into the path forward for gene editing in agriculture. What will that look like for farmers and for consumers? In our last episode we clarified some of the key differences between gene editing and transgenic crops, or what most know as GMOs. Transgenic crops have been widely adopted over the past 30 years, but very few gene edited crops are currently on the market. Why is that and what will it take to make this technology more widely available? To tackle these questions and others, we are joined by Corteva Agriscience global leader of regulatory and stewardship Reza Rasoulpour. He’s a molecular and cellular biologist by training who has been with the company for over 18 years.Reza describes Corteva’s newly launched Genlytix gene editing ecosystem designed to accelerate sustainable agriculture, specifically in seed and biological products. “When you think about gene editing, anyone can gene edit. I mean, it's almost a democratized type of technology, It's really accelerated plant breeding. So the only way to maximize the value for everyone in agriculture is to be more vocal and take a much more collaborative approach… It would be a shame if misinterpretation and the wrong kind of assumptions for this type of technology led to regulators or others inhibiting the opportunity for local solutions to local problems.” - Reza RasoulpourHeather Hampton Knodle is a fourth generation farmer in south central Illinois. She joins the episode as well to pose some of the questions she has as a farmer and mother thinking about the future. Heather poses important questions about this technology and some ideas she has for real problems on the farm that this technology might help to solve down the road. Some Takeaways from this episode include:Gene editing is following the same process as traditional breeding, just a lot more precise. Reza uses a book analogy to describe the difference between putting two books together in hopes of some of the words ending up in the right place (traditional breeding) vs just finding one word in the book to change out to get a desired outcome (gene editing). This is a fundamentally different technology that will require a different approach. I was surprised at how accessible these tools are, and it makes sense that the tool itself is not going to be what is proprietary for companies, so working together collaboratively through an ecosystem like Genlytix could be really powerful. Scientists have been working on gene editing in agriculture for over a decade, and the big catalyst will be global regulatory approval. Reza emphasizes the need to continue the positive momentum in this area. There is a lot happening in the world, but the ramifications for putting these tools in the hands of farmers given the current stakes are just too significant to be put on the back burner. Agriscience Explained is brought to you by Corteva Agriscience and hosted by Tim Hammerich. This show is produced by Clint Pilcher, Rayda Krell and Ann Leonard. Jaime Hammerich and Grant Bolton edit these podcasts, and the music was composed by Dmitri Volkov. Subscribe for more Agriscience Explained: From Science to Solutions. 

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