AgTalk Home
AgTalk Home
Search Forums | Classifieds | Skins | Language
You are logged in as a guest. ( logon | register )

Another seed corn question
View previous thread :: View next thread
   Forums List -> Crop TalkMessage format
 
illinidirtfarmer
Posted 11/26/2014 19:05 (#4203456 - in reply to #4202851)
Subject: RE: Another seed corn question


WC IL
It is really a fairly simple process to create an inbred. Pick any kernel of corn. Plant it and isolate it. Then let it self pollinate and mature. Harvest the seed and plant that. Let those plants self pollinate. Continue this for 7 generations and you have what is called an inbred that is I think considered 98% genetically pure. Take 2 inbreds, designate one the male and the other the female. The male will be left with the tassels, the females will have the tassels removed. Let them cross pollinate. The cross of these 2 is a hybrid.
Trying to predict what you will get when you produce a hybrid is where the plant breeders come in. There are 100's of thousands of crosses done every year, and then many years of testing on those hybrids to see if they express the traits that growers want. The process of developing the inbreds that were used to produce the hybrid seed you planted this year may have started 10-12 years ago. The breeders have figured out ways to speed up the process, some as simple as planting multiple generations in a year by growing inbreds in winter nurseries in Hawaii, and some lab and greenhouse projects such as double haploid corn and using molecular markers to determine if desired traits are present. and even after all that, when a hybrid gets into wide area testing, weaknesses may be found that cause it to never be used.
I highly respect the plant breeders, no matter what company they work for. They have a tough job and have to deal with lots of frustration.
Top of the page Bottom of the page


Jump to forum :
Search this forum
Printer friendly version
E-mail a link to this thread

(Delete cookies)