When it comes to growing and changing, Bryan Stobaugh says it’s important to ensure you’re not doing something just because “it’s always been done that way.”
“Our industry has changed and will continue to change,” Stobaugh, director of Licensing and commercialization for Missouri Soybeans and one of Seed World’s Top 10 Next Gen Leaders, says. But luckily, even though change is afoot in the industry, Stobaugh says it’s exciting change.
Growing up on a 6,000-acre row crop farm with rice, corn and soybeans, Stobaugh grew a passion for breeding after taking an interest in evolutionary genetics. After working on a special project that allowed him to work with scorpion toxin, his education eventually took him back to his roots with soybeans and finally, to Missouri Soybean, where his team’s goal is to launch soy-based products into the commercial space.
“My desire is to give soybean producers a competitive crop and make it prosperous on previously less productive acres. The trial and error make each day interesting for me and my fellow researchers,” he says, noting that he’s enjoyed learning about the vast varieties and combinations of genetics that can produce stellar soybeans. ”
But, even after years of working and helping to launch SOYLEIC¬® soybeans, he’s eager to see change in the industry — primarily within the complementary research between private companies and public breeding.
“As our world population grows, we must think outside the box,” Stobaugh says. “Each private industry and public university have a limited source of genetics because they have each been readily focused on creating the best genetics/variety that works for their customer base, but the ability to create new traits and varieties for soybean across the country through public/private breeding projects will inevitably create the U.S. as the stronger, more defined, soybean producer in the world.”
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