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  • From: KAKerby AT aol.com
  • To: homesteadinglifestyle AT yahoogroups.com, Self_Sufficient_Farming_and_Living AT yahoogroups.com, organichomesteading AT yahoogroups.com, market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] interesting new OP corn breeding project
  • Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:24:55 -0500 (EST)

I'm sending this to multiple lists because I know a whole lot of folks will be interested.  The most recent issue of Small Farmer's Journal has a short article on page 27, titled "The Road To Better Corn is "Open".  It describes a relatively new project by some farmers and plant breeders, to refocus on breeding specific OP corn lines for higher yields, better disease resistance, etc, particularly dent corn.  The project is called The Seedtime Co-Operative.  The short article describes how hybrid corn really has stolen the spotlight for most plant breeding efforts over the last 70 years (!).  But so much more is known now about corn genetics, that OP strains with strong production characteristics are definitely within reach.  What the project needs right now is farmer participation, particularly those farmers who already have OP lines of corn that produce well under each farmer's localized conditions.  Those lines will be tested and their genotypes used as starting points for future breeding work. 
 
The group currently has members in Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky, but they are looking for more participation. 
 
I searched for a website for these folks but couldn't find one.  However, a free monthly paper newsletter is available by request.  To request the newsletter and/or for more information, write to:
Luke Eby
170 Blue Heron Drive
Delano, TN 37325-7723

Here's hoping perhaps the tide can yet be turned on GMO corn.  I found myself cautiously optimistic after reading the article......
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html


  • [Market-farming] interesting new OP corn breeding project, KAKerby, 01/18/2012

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