Crop Tour Day 11 - The First Step to Addressing a Problem is Being Able to Measure it!

By: Callum Nixon, Jillian Ohm, Janeen Overdevest, and Carmen White

This quote stated by a speaker at Corteva today summed up the day’s activities at Nichols Farms and Corteva headquarters. Measuring the progress and results of something allow one to take control and mindfully track the progress towards a goal, whether it be reducing our carbon emissions feeding cattle or creating a crop that will let farmers around the world produce more with less. This is essential to keep farming future focused, and efficient to sustain our growing world. 

Nichols Farms 

Our group was welcomed into a paddock with Black Simmental mature pairs, where Bart gave us an introduction on the Nichol’s operation. The herd was one of three to do marbling and carcass testing with Iowa State in 1986 – back when punch cards were used to track records! Focussing on data collection and research to improve cattle have been the foundation since Dave Nichols started and has consistently continued. Bart gave us some background on their three breeds, Black Angus, Black Simmental, and Black Devons. These purebreds are each analyzed with Expected Progeny Differences (EPD’s) with birthweight, weaning weight, milk, etc. These traits are tracked from birth and give the customers a way to assess the genotype of the bulls they want. For example, one of their top bulls known as “Legacy” can still be traced back to 85% of the world Black Simmental herd. This farm also pays special attention to the temperament of their herd. They pay special attention to their calves when they’re weening as this seems to be the best time to measure future temperament. The staff take notes on anything that sticks out daily when they walk the herd.  

The farm places priority on the temperament of their herd. They pay special attention to their calves when they’re weaning, as it is a common time to measure future temperament in stressful situations. The staff also take notes on anything that sticks out daily whenever they walk the herd. They use this data to selectively breed and eventually make their cows easier to work with. This is important to their customers, who value feeling safe when working with the bulls and their progeny. Nichol’s have an annual bull sale, and a customer driven calf sale (all sired by their bulls). A 75% of their bulls stay within a 250-mile radius. Much of their labour is in the spring during calving and AI breeding season.  

We got back on the bus and headed down to the barns near the house. Here, we learned about different ways that the Nichol’s improve efficiency in the beef industry. Profitable commercial producers are low-cost producers, but two areas you can’t skimp out on are buying the right genetics and herd health. Nichols has high standards in both regards, and the productivity is evident with each pair needing 2-3 acres to flourish. They use all their own cattle in research projects, with multiple projects on the go at any given time.  

The C-Lock is designed to measure animal feed intake and provide data to calculate feed efficiency in their herd. Currently, they were feeding yearling heifers with the help of Neogen technology. Methane amounts are being tracked, aiming to source the best genetics that produce the least gas emissions. With the definite possibility of carbon credits becoming available to the beef industry, the Nichol’s are ahead of the game in research and development to help other producers as well. The SenseHub tag system tracks movement and temperature of the animals and helps detect sickness before the cattle show visible signs.  

Bovine Respiratory Disease is the costliest loss to the beef industry at over 10 billion dollars a year – as it kills at any age, especially post weaning calves in the first two-week period. They are collecting data to categorize the trait, measuring temperatures, movement and analyzing periods off feed to detect who needed antibiotics. So far, they have determined that the BRD EPD has low heritability. If they could reduce it by a significant amount, this would have a big impact on the industry. The crew mentioned a few other things they were excited about, including the MGA feed additive that helps keep their cows from coming into heat to synch, an advanced water tracker from South Dakota, and Ross travelling to Japan to discuss meat importing and exporting.  

Corteva Headquarters  

We were welcomed to Corteva headquarters for lunch by Geoff Graham, the Vice President of Seed Production Development. The lunch served was delicious tacos with cookies to follow for dessert. After lunch, we proceeded with the planned schedule for the day. Our group was split into two with half going to one of their greenhouses and the other half going to the molecular lab. After the facility tours, we proceeded to be split into three groups to rotate to rotate through different stations. The first station discussed soybean breeding, the second shared their advances in precision phenotyping, and finally we learned about the history of corn breeding. Finally, we went back to the main facility and were treated with some snacks and water as we listened to two presentations, the first being about Agronomy research Pioneer has done and the second discussing the different uses of corn.  

The Corteva headquarters have four acres of greenhouse facilities split into two. One greenhouse is static, meaning plants are stationary and if research were to be done, they would go to the plant itself. The second greenhouse is fully automated, meaning the plants are all on conveyer belts and will come to you when research needs to be conducted. To conduct this research the wanted plants would move along the belt to the head house for imagining, which is like an x-ray for plants showing characteristics the naked eye is unable to observe. Once the image is taken the plant is taken back to its place in the greenhouse. Along with the automation for moving and collecting data from the plants the greenhouse is also a controlled climate my computers regulating heat, light, and humidity. While all equipment is from international companies from the Netherlands however the entire facility is unique to Corteva, and you will not be able to find a replica anywhere. 

The other half of the group was driven to the molecular lab where Pete the lead of the global genotyping team toured us through the DNA marker lab. The Johnson lab is Corteva’s largest DNA marker lab, but they have labs around the world. We were taken through the process of DNA sample processing, extraction, and analysis. Each year they test 100s of millions of markers. While most of the samples tested in this lab are from Corteva, they also test for other seed companies, universities, and food companies. All types of plant matter from seed to leaf tissue can be broken down and tested for markers. Plants from early stage breeding all the way to commercial seed are tested. The purpose of marker testing is to identify if selected traits are present within a plant. Some examples of markers that are being tested for include: herbicide tolerance (presence of enlist trait), genetic purity (there are 3,000 markers to test for this), and the presence of pathogens. The lab helps Corteva make decisions about what genetics should continue down the production line and verifies the presence of integrated traits.  

Next, we all reconvened and split into three groups to tour the outdoor plots. Each group toured through the corn and soybean plots and learned about how they are using drones and robots to phenotype plants. It was very interesting to learn about the history of corn breeding and physically see how the corn plant has evolved from 9000 years ago to now.  

In the soybean plot we learned about factors that impact soybean yield. Ag management practices such as fertility management, planting date, and seed treatment as well as environmental conditions such as accumulated rainfall and climate change all affect soybean yield. Surprisingly, 2/3 of soybean productivity increases have been caused by genetic improvements. Julien who leads the soybean breeding program in Central Iowa talked to us about the importance of breeding for SCN resistance, SDS, Phytophthora, and White Mould. Another shocking fact was that 100 years ago the average soybean yield in the US was 12 bu/ac, now the average is 52 bu/ac. That’s a 5x productivity increase!  

Next we learned about how Corteva uses drones, robots, and satellite imagery to phenotype (or measure plant traits). In the past, they have used physical labour to measure plant characteristics such as leaf angle, leaf thickness, leaf greenness etc.  What used to take a scout 90 hours to do, a drone and robot can now cover in 30 minutes.  

At the corn plot we learned about the history of corn breeding and how historic events like the dust bowl showed farmers the advantages of planting corn hybrids. We also learned about short stature corn and its potential for the future. Some benefits include: reduced lodging and similar yields to tall corn. We also learned about racehorse, workhorse, and “mule” varieties and how each can be advantageous in different environments. For example; AquaMax corn is stable and reliable in drought stressed areas and can produce 150bu on typically low yielding acres but does not perform as well on good preforming acres. 

We wrapped up our time at Corteva with two quick presentations on their annual agronomy research publications and uses of different types of corn. Mark Jeschke, the Agronomy Manager in Iowa spoke to us about Pioneers annual agronomy publication that aims to educate farmers on current agronomy issues/challenges. Corteva publishes 50-60 new articles per year and they currently have 500 articles publicly available. We also had a short discussion about how corn is not always about yield and sometimes quality for end products is more important especially when looking at special markets such as white corn and waxy corn. 

These two operations, while at a glance could seem vastly different, are both driven entirely by genetics, data, and efficiency in their operations. The products for Nichols Farm being their beef here and genetics, and Corteva with seed products. This enhancement is through constant monitoring and measuring of inputs and the effects they have on the finished product. Both Corteva and Nichols also utilize the resources of the university programs around them, with Nichols using their beef herd to assist with databases of organizations aiming for a more efficient industry, with breed associations and others across the world. Especially with the dwindling water supply that has been revealed to us throughout this trip, with emissions from nitrogen fertilizer it is crucial to make these decisions. Nichols are doing the same thing, whereas Corteva wants more corn per field, Nichols wants to be open to feed more cows with the same number of acres, and they are also breeding for lower greenhouse gas emissions. These missions and management tactics are the key to a more sustainable future in agriculture.