Gil Gullickson

Soybeans
yields are saddled with the reputation that their yields lag those of corn.
Still, a glance backward shows U.S. soybean yields have risen 29% on average
over the past 20 years.

The
reason? At October’s Syngenta Media Summit in San Antonio, Vern Hawkins,
president of Syngenta Crop Protection, noted the increase is due to:

·     
Better technology

·     
Glyphosate-tolerant traits

This
fall’s commodity price spike bodes well for crop input companies in 2011.

Vern
Hawkins, Syngenta Crop Protection president, notes the firm’s recent third
quarter sale volume for this year are up 18%. “There was strong growth across
all product lines,” Hawkins told agricultural media at October’s Syngenta Media
Summit in San Antonio, Texas.

Collaboration
with Australian firm aims at high-yielding wheat varieties, traits

HPPD-inhibitor
resistant trait, new corn rootworm-resistant trait in the works

Lessons
learned can apply on the farm

In the United States, Friedrich Berschauer could pass for
any veteran businessman. In Germany, though, his position as chairman of the
board of management of Bayer CropScience gave him high visibility in European
agriculture.

A
broad-spectrum, low-cost residual herbicide might be reality someday

Picture this: A herbicide with a weed spectrum that rivals
glyphosate. Plus, it has residual, something which glyphosate doesn’t have. It
also breaks down quickly in the soil, has a low active ingredient use rate, and
costs no more than glyphosate.

Is that possible?