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Colby, Kansas | Kent and others,
I guess what caught me goes back to the posts from the other day on PVP and also some things here. Everyone speaks about how evil the corn/bean/cotton/sorghum seed companies are for recovering tech fees, the price of seed, etc. And yet I wonder to myself, what if there were no public effort in wheat,, how many new varieties would be released in a given year, what would they cost. Would the progress in wheat become as slow as it has in grain sorghum (a crop mostly cast aside by seed companies in my view).
So if you have decided that producers have no benefit in helping develop new varieties then our discussion ends here. However, if there is value in that then how can one expect a continued rate of progress at todays cost with 1996 funding.
In specific to your comments about K-State, I don't know who said what at which field day, but if they truly felt some AgriPro varieties were better or whatever would you rather they lie to you and tell you to plant K-State variety X123 anyways. That defeats the purpose of any independent crop performance testing. I get the idea that your not pleased with what KSU has released in recent years. If you grow strictly reds thats understandable as the argument could be made that too much effort has been placed in whites, that is currently changing.
The comment that really grates me regards the hail damage. KSU is blessed to have excellent facilities and equipment in Manhattan (a fair chunk of which has been provided for the breeding program through the wheat funds). However things are not so plush that multiple multi-million dollar facilities can be built and operated to guard against 1 in 20 or 40 year storm events with two rounds of softball hail and a tornado. When it takes between 8 and 14 years to develop a variety and you are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, loosing a year is a big deal. It will likely take more than 1 year to get back to the same spot in the process.
Kent, I would really encourage you to make the effort while in Manhattan someday to stop by and see Alan Fritz (wheat breeder) or one of his technicians if they are in. Have them show you around and get a feel for what it took to develop Jaggar or any variety for that matter. These folks (and most in ag research) take their work seriously and take great pride in developing something that will hopefully make you money someday.
In the interest of full disclosure I know a handful (5) of the wheat grower reps / commissioners. Although I am not involved in the breeding program I am involved in KSU Ag Research and I've been around the breeding programs enough to have a working knowledge of what goes on. I once applied for wheat money to fund a project and it was rejected. I think that covers any potential conflicts of interest.
Please don't assume any tone in my comments, I'm just trying to communicate from my experiences how I see it.
Regards,
Lucas | |
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KS Wheat Assessment (tax) Going Up.
