b'WHAT ANA-MAIZING CROP!A DEEP DIVE INTO CORN BREEDING PART 1TYPES, MARKETS AND REACHING EVER HIGHER YIELDS.BY: MARCEL BRUINS AND TREENA HEINC orn, also known widely as maize, remains a critical crop used in a wide range of food, feed and industrial applications. As breeders continue to make progress, the importance of this crop as well as the diversity of its uses are expected to increase. Corns genetic yield potential continues to rise due to ongo-ing development of new applied breeding technologies and strong competition between seed companies. Of course, new concepts and technologies pertaining to field performance, namely more targeted and improved delivery of fertilizer and pest/weed control products, will also play an important role in maximizing the genetic yield potential of maize.Indeed, higher and higher yields of this crop are very much needed. According to the UN Food & Agriculture Organization, the global human population may reach 8.3 billion by 2030 and 10 billion by 2050. As mentioned, not only is corn an important human food source, its also a critical livestock feed ingredient that supports increased global meat and milk production. Higher yields are especially critical because the increasing global population, together with desertification and other impacts of climate change, mean the land available for cultivation of corn may drop, perhaps significantly, over time. The genetics of corn have, therefore, never been more impor- Pter Knczltant. That is why Seed World Europe has chosen to highlight corn in this years in-depth crop breeding profile. Here in Part 1, we examine types of corn, their markets and yield.Our focus is on the early forage maize market: varieties up to We spoke with breeders at seven leading maize breeding com- maturity group FAO 260, well-adapted to be used as silage and/panies from all over Europe, including: or grain production, says Camp. In this maturity, the classicKarl-Heinz Camp, Head of the Cereals, Corn and SoyaEuropean formula of dent x flint hybrids is still very important.Divisions at Delley Semences et Plantes SA (DSP) inOf course, some introgression of dent germplasm has been done Switzerland. as its one source to broaden up the genetic variability within ourLudwig Feldmeier, Maize Breeder at Freiherr von Moreaubreeding populations.Saatzucht GmbH, in Germany. Freiherr von Moreau Saatzucht also concentrates almost exclu-Ivan Halechko, Leading Breeder; Viktor Borysov, Chairmansively on flint and corresponding dent varieties. Flint genetics are of the Board; and Ruslan Martsyn, Commercial Director atvaluable, explains Feldmeier, as they provide this type of corn with Company Mais in Ukraine. a tolerance to lower temperatures that has a positive effect on vege- Laurent Bettinger, Corn Breeding Leader at Lidea in France. tative growth at the start of the growing season. Flint genetics also Jean-Bruno Beaufum, Head of Temperate Maize Researchconfer higher assimilation performance at cooler temperatures in Limagrain Field Seeds. the ripening stage.Pter Knczl, Head of Europe Field Crops SeedsAt Company Mais in Ukraine, however, more than 80 per Development at Syngenta in Hungary. cent of breeding effort is aimed at obtaining elite inbreds of dentElliot Heffner, Europe Plant Breeding Leader at Cortevacorn. This choice is because for our market, the rate of moistureAgriscience. loss during ripening is critically important and dent corn is better for this feature, says Halechko. And whilst the importance of the CORN TYPES breeding of flint corn inbreds is decreasing over time, it remains Several different types of corn are currently bred in Europe (dent,relevant for northern regions where corn is mainly grown for silage flint, sweet, flour, pop, tropical and pod), but the focus among majoror wet grain. corn breeding companies is mostly on two: dent and flint. With Lideas target markets being European and North About 80 per cent of DSPs breeding efforts, for example, areAmerican field crop markets (grain and silage), the company works focused on dent x flint silage types, with the other 20 per cent onwith dent, flint and tropical germplasm sources. Limagrain Field pure dent grain types.Seeds also focuses on corn types for grain and silage uses, with 6ISEED WORLD EUROPEISEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE'