Agriscience Explained

In this episode we look back at the history of agriculture to help inform the future. Specifically, we explore how genetics have propelled the current agriculture industry and how we can leverage that technology to solve future problems producers will face. 

Agriscience digital seed lead and distinguished laureate Dean Podlich joins the show to share his perspective of the historical development of crop hybrids as the overseer of digital solutions to help develop seed products with Corteva Agriscience. 

“ If you go back a hundred years ago, the average bushels per acre in the US is somewhere between 25 and 30 bushels per acre. You fast forward to today, it's in the high 170s. So you're talking about a 7x increase in productivity on the farm over the last a hundred years. And, and that in itself, it's just an incredible story. It's really one of the best examples of innovation and technology as an industry in the history of agriculture, and that's happening for corn in the US.” - Dean Podlich 

Two farmers are also included in this episode. Illinois producer Heather Hampton-Knodle shares the economic concerns that are on the minds of many farmers. David Hula who farms in Virginia describes the importance of genetics on all of his acres, including his world record corn yield of 623.8439 bushels per acre with a hybrid from Corteva Agriscience. 

“Our corn is handling the droughts much better. Part of it is management, but the corn themselves are doing better…The corn hybrids are clearly better from disease, standability, stay green, drought tolerance, and of course yield.” - David Hula

The episode explores historical advancements in crop genetics, emphasizing the significance of Henry Wallace's work with hybrids and Raymond Baker's contributions to germplasm. Today, scientists and farmers continue to build on their work with modern tools, including digital tools and gene editing, to enhance productivity and sustainability on farms. 

Some takeaways from this episode include: 

1. The combined history that has led to a 7x increase in productivity on the farm due to the combination of genetics and management components
2. Raymond Baker’s work to take throwaway inbreds and turn them into the Iowa yield contest winners. The fact that the germ plasm from Raymond Baker have been evolved to the high yielding hybrids we benefit from today. This underscores the fact that innovation often leads to more and quicker future discoveries and improvements. 
3. Digital being an important part of the process to improve genetics and dating back at least to the 1950s. That long history of data enables scientists to take full advantage of modern tools like gene editing and artificial intelligence. 

Agriscience Explained is a podcast brought to you by Corteva Agriscience. Host Tim Hammerich visits with both scientists and farmers about how agricultural innovations are discovered, developed and deployed on the farm. 

In today’s episode: what can you expect from this new podcast? There are a lot of other great agricultural shows out there, so why this one and why now? 

For these questions, we visit with Corteva Agriscience executive vice president and chief technical and digital officer Sam Eathington. His perspective as a family farmer turned plant breeder turned innovation leader shines through as he shares the motivation behind this podcast. 

"Let's have conversations with scientists and farmers. So scientists who might be creating something and a farmer who's trying to use it. And I think that's going to bring a really unique perspective and I think create some unique conversations about the technology.” - Sam Eathington

Throughout this episode, Eathington highlights a number of topics that will be explored in future episodes of this podcast including gene editing, biologicals, hybrid wheat, crop protection, biofuels and others. 

Some takeaways from this episode include: 

1. There is some incredible cutting-edge science and technology that goes into farming that we will share on this podcast from both the scientist’s and the farmer’s perspectives. 
2. Gene editing is here and it’s changing the game. After all of the incredible advancements we’ve seen thanks to genetics, we are still just scratching the surface of what’s possible genetically in crop production. 
3. Innovation can help not only make farmers more productive, but more profitable. Sam’s provides an excellent example of this related to biofuels. 

Agriscience Explained is a podcast brought to you by Corteva Agriscience. Host Tim Hammerich visits with both scientists and farmers about how agricultural innovations are discovered, developed and deployed on the farm. 

This is the motivation behind this podcast series, Agriscience Explained, brought to you by Corteva Agriscience. Join us as we push the boundaries from science to solutions.