Genetically altered seeds boost yields

COLUMBUS �” Seed selection once consisted of farmers collecting seeds from the current crop for next year’s planting.

Decades later, with the advancement of knowledge and technology, crop seeds have evolved by leaps and bounds through genetic engineering to provide greater yields at lower production costs.

Because that development is expected to grow, the seed business has become a multi-billion dollar industry with Nebraska and the rest of the Midwest playing a large role in the innovation and advancement of seed technology.

Keith Kaslon, local field advisor for Monsanto said the innovations being researched, developed and introduced within the next few year would have been unimaginable a dozen years ago.

Using tools of modern biology, genetic engineering and in-the-seed-trait technologies, high-tech seeds are providing greater crop yields and will become less reliant on resources, such as water and fertilizer, to produce high quality products, Kaslon said.

“There are a lot of changes going on in the seed business right now,” he said.

Monsanto is a leader in the business of seeds and traits and genetic technology platforms, which include biotechnology, breeding and genomics, Kaslon said.

“Monsanto is on the forefront of integrating traits without affecting yield,” he said, traits such as insect and pest resistance.

Kaslon said within the next three years Monsanto-developed seeds will be genetically engineered to incorporate high resistance to pests.

Multiple traits are being developed to be included in one DNA sequence, which would all lead to higher yields and reduced production costs to agricultural producers, he said. Lab technicians are able to splice together biotech packages that give seeds genetic resistance to pests and give the crop tolerance to the herbicides that wipe out invading weeds.

The process begins in a lab where scientists insert traits in various zones of a plant’s DNA and examine which zones have a greater or lesser impact on the plant by insertion of those traits.

“They examine sequencing of the DNA to figure out what makes it more effective to produce the next generation of high yield corn,” Kaslon said.

The future of seed technology not only incorporates pest resistance, but also drought tolerance and nitrogen use efficiency, he said, thus requiring farmers to irrigate less and cut down on fertilizer costs while producing the same, or better, yields.

Both are important elements in a time of water usage concerns in the state and rising production costs, Kaslon said.

One example of Monsanto’s success is the development of a second generation of Roundup herbicide ready soybeans. Roundup is also manufactured by Monsanto.

Kaslon said conventional soybeans are killed by Roundup, but utilizing new DNA mapping sequences and technology Roundup resistance has been genetically inserted into the next generation of soybean seeds.

All the current and future advancements will lead to less use of valuable resources and higher production yields, he said.

Locally, farmers and distributors in the area are contributing to these efforts by setting aside plots for testing of hybrids and promotion of the products that are successfully generated through the process, he said.

Nebraska’s contributions to Monsanto’s multi-billion dollar business is expected to expand, by double in the next few years, as it is in the process of building a new processing plant between Utica and Waco that represents most of a $155 million investment.

Monsanto is a leading producer of in-the-seed trait technologies for farmers aimed at protecting their yield, increasing efficiency and reducing costs, Kaslon said.