b'Its very exciting to be part of developing a new crop for the Midwest United States. The last time that happened with soybeans 75 years ago. Theres been nothing since. Its an incredible experience because everything is new. Winthrop PhippenWhile CoverCress Inc. does not have plans to license CoverCress, non-edited pennycress germplasm held at the involved universities is readily available to other entities, Phippen says.Building a Path ForwardBy August 2022, Bayer, Bunge and Chevron owned CoverCress Inc. The first pre-commercial CoverCress crop was planted in late 2023 across 3,000 acres on 24 farms in Illinois, Missouri and Indiana. In early 2024, CoverCress Inc. received a Bloomberg New Energy Fuel Pioneers award. The grain harvested in May will be delivered to our first cus-tomer, DeCamp says, to be included at a low inclusion rate in whole grain form in broiler chicken feed as the energy source for that feed. Future harvests will be crushed at the Bunge-Chevron Ag Renewables plant in Destrehan, Louisiana, which is now being modified for novel winter oilseed crops such as CoverCress and winter canola. The oil will be taken to a relatively close renew-Closeup of pennycress flowering. able diesel refinery, and the meal is ideal for animal feed, with a nutritional profile similar to canola meal. Researchers say outreach is necessary to scale CoverCress production (with all production through contracted growers), but by the end of the year, Phippen hopes knowledge of the variety will be widespread. Covid really clobbered our outreach over the last three years, Phippen says, but were having a (spring) field day in Macomb, Illinois that we hope will be very well-attended. I think the benefits of pennycress are obvious to farmers.He says farmers dont have to buy any new equipment to har-vest pennycress, they will just make a few simple modifications. The grain is much smaller than corn and soybean, Phippen explains. So farmers need to slow down the harvest speed, turn down the combine fan speed a little, put mesh into the bottom of bins so that the grain wont fall through. While he also notes that its a lot of work to go from weed to crop, Phippen sees the journey of transforming pennycress to CoverCress truly historic. And the number of those on the jour-ney is getting bigger all the time. There are several people now looking at root architecture, for example, Phippen reports. Pennycress has a small tap root and is therefore able to scavenge nitrogen a little deeper down, which is a great bonus benefit as a cover crop.Looking back, he says its very exciting to be part of develop-ing a new crop for the Midwest United States. The last time that happened with soybeans 75 years ago. Theres been nothing since. CoverCress grain at maturity.PHOTO PROVIDED BY COVERCRESS Its an incredible experience because everything is new.SW34/ SEEDWORLD.COMJUNE 2024'