b'S T R A T E G Y A featured segment designed to help you in the realm of retail seed sales. Data-driven Breeding Is Saving CornTodays breeders address corn concerns in the face of climate change.Melissa ShipmanFROM DROUGHT TO And by marrying these flood, and back to droughtonto those traits, were able to again the next year, todayssay, for example, that a certain farmers face increasinglynumber of acres will experi-extreme swings in weatherence extreme heat. And with-as a result of global climateout a heat tolerant variety, you change. Seed breeders arestand to lose x million dollars tasked with using data in newof sales. Or, with that variety, ways to protect yields. you could gain x million dol-As a breeder, its mylars of sales by being the most responsibility to think 10 orprepared for this new market, 15 years in the future, so thatKletter says.farmers have the productsThen, once they have those and the tools available to themestimates, the next step is to to meet the demands that arefind a place where those con-going to be there at that time,ditions are the current reality, says Stephen Swarm, cornnot the future expectation.breeder for Becks Hybrids.If thats the market 20 Swarm is a specialist inyears from now, where can stress breeding; his effortsI test today? Its almost like are focused on Indiana, Ohio,While drought might more prevelant, heavy rainfall and flooding,a Google search for climate Kentucky, Tennessee andsuch as in 2019, has been a major concern for corn breeders. to find a place that looks like Southern Illinois, but thetoday, what Indiana will look lessons hes learned can beadvance, its crucial for breed- in July in the 2030s. So, whenlike 20 years from now, so that applied far and wide. ers and developers to have anyou might experience a heatI can cite my trial locations in idea of what climate condi- stress during flowering, fora place that is representative Predicting the Future tions will be present in theexample, Kletter explains. of what my customers will While farmers understandfuture. ClimateAi uses analyticsexperience when I actually get that climate is different thanAnd for that, they needand machine learning to helpto market, Kletter says. what it was 20 years ago,numbers. But maybe not theanswer these specific ques-making sense of the rapidlynumbers that come to mindtions to inform their clientsBig Picture, Bigger changing weather trends canat first. breeding and market strate- Impactsbe a challenge. Kletter says historical aver- gies. Its important to keep a broad Growers arent necessarilyages are no longer as helpfulperspective when considering thinking about what they willin determining future seedConquer by Diving climate change.need 10 years from now. Theyneeds. Its not enough to justThe first step to actionableWe expect warmer and are thinking about how to getknow that an area is gettingopportunities is to dividedrier summers, which is kind of yields this season, says Willhotter, or drier.growing regions into zoneswhat you think of at first with Kletter, head of customer suc- We dont talk about thewith similar expected climateglobal warming, but thats not cess at ClimateAi. average temperature; we talkshifts, looking specifically atreally the full picture. With cli-However, because seedsabout the number of dayswhat risks need to be evalu- mate change, were also seeing must be developed years inabove 90 degrees Fahrenheitated.earlier and heavier rains in the 52/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2022'