b'Biologicals to Stay Ahead of the GameVince Wertman is RSM and director of Technical Services for ABM/Agrauxine by Lesaffres North American operations, based in Van Wert, Ohio. He says the increasing frequency of abiotic stresses such as heat and drought is a huge concern for his company since they are a leading cause of crop loss in crops like corn and soybeans. As a result, Wertman says his company has increased its efforts of late to provide growers with even more biological tools for their toolbox. That includes the introduction of ABMs SabrEx line of products for corn, wheat and cereals as well as its Graph-Ex, Graph-Ex SA and Excalibre-SA products for soybeans that contain the companys Trichoderma beneficial fungi technology.I think that were always trying to better our response for the grower, he explains. One of the ways weve done that within our company is weve always selected endophytes or organisms that live within the plant and provide the plant with a larger diameter. These abiotic stresses could have a much greater impact on the plant if it didnt have that relationship with that endophyte within the plant.Playing the Long GameMegan Gillespie, head of phenomics for Bayer Crop Science, says shifting environmental and soil conditions have prompted Bayer to change how the company approaches the issue of how to address abiotic stresses. That means taking more of a long- Tim Setter, a professor of field crop science in Cornell Universitys term approach to dealing with those concerns, she explains. soil and crop science section.As we are designing more products and breeding for prod-ucts, we have to keep in mind the climate of today is not neces- However, Eller stresses that those companies still need to sarily the climate of the future, she says. We need to keep theshift their way of thinking and focus on more than simply yield climate of the future in mind as we are thinking about the prod- potential.uct goals that were trying to meet with precision breeding. ThatAs an industry I think we need to take a much closer look is absolutely something that we cant lose sight of and I think weat (utilization), he says. Were so focused on application rates. need to put more effort into that moving forward. What we should be focused on is utilization rates, especially with As part of that long-term approach, Gillespie says Bayer isfertilizer at record high prices. Companies need to help us do a making a concerted effort to measure the environment wherebetter job of understanding the total crop and not just that its its products are being tested more accurately. That includesthree bushels better.introducing new, state-of-the-art sensors and other technologies such as satellite imagery at its testing and breeding sites. New Opportunities and InnovationsWere trying to measure the environment better than weThe news isnt all doom and gloom when it comes to agriculture have in the past so that when we see a response in our geneticsand the environment. Setter points out that climate change and that we can understand what caused that response. What werethe resulting rise in temperatures could mean new opportunities trying to do is understand down to the plant level what kind offor both seed companies and growers. For example, warmer environment is that plant experiencing and what can we learntemperatures in some northern states could mean be an oppor-from that, Gillespie explains. tunity for growers to plant different or longer season crops that The company is also using that same technology to gain amight not have thrived in their region in the past.better understanding of a plants response to its environmentLets be on the lookout for those opportunities, he adds.rather than relying solely on data such as yield. For her part, Gillespie is looking forward to seeing what kind of innovations are developed as a result of the ag industrys Education for Companies efforts to address some of the challenges facing growers.Erich Eller, an agronomist and independent crop consultant withI work with some of the coolest people you could imagine ForeFront Ag Solutions, says hes encouraged by the efforts ofand its really state-of-the-art solutions that were bringing for-ag companies to better understand the changing environmentward for these problems. I want to make sure people understand and develop new products that better respond to the environ- we are using as much cutting-edge technology as we can to mental stresses growers are now dealing with. solve this situation.SW100/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2021'