By Andrea Johnson
FAIRIBAULT, Minn. - With only limited herbicides and insecticides
available for corn production, some northern European farmers want
biotechnology tools for their operations.
Those tools could include glyphosate tolerance, European corn borer
protection and corn rootworm protection.

Twelve farmers from Sweden, Lithuania and Denmark traveled to the
United States recently, courtesy of Monsanto, to see how biotech traits are
used.

The farmers traveled to three states - Georgia, Missouri and
Minnesota.

?Without Roundup Ready corn, they are just looking for some answers to
work with the herbicides they have to use that are still not getting the job
done,? said Don Diehl, Monsanto trait and seed representative in Minnesota.
?They are looking for a more efficient, more productive system.?

Before visiting the states, the farmers had all expressed an interest
in learning more about biotechnology. Some of them are raising test plots of
Roundup Ready corn for Monsanto in their countries.

The farmers who took part in this tour hope to expand their corn
acres, but they have only limited weed control options.

?They wanted to come out here and talk to farmers and growers and get
some real down-to-earth information and take that information back to build
a case for biotechnology,? said Diehl.

Selling harvested corn with biotech traits is not yet fully approved
in Europe.

While in Minnesota, the group stopped at the Paul and Bonnie Bauer
farm east of Faribault.

Paul has a hog-finishing operation, his son has a dairy/milking
enterprise, and the Bauers raise continuous corn.

It's Bauer's goal to raise 300-bushel corn/acre across his fields.
He's using DEKALB corn hybrids in pursuit of that goal.

In 2006, Bauer came close to reaching his goal with one corn field
averaging about 270 bushels/acre.

At Bauer's farm, Jeff Coultas, Monsanto technology product manager of
Northfield, Minn., explained the ways that farmers in the upper Midwest
currently use biotechnology.

Biotechnology traits for insect and herbicide protection have allowed
U.S. farmers to control the pests where they couldn't before without
handling insecticides. This offers greater safety and ease of use.

Coultas explained that U.S. farmers quickly adapted benefits of Bt
technology. Prior to 1996, most U.S. farmers had uncontrolled European corn
borers (ECB) in corn, for instance.

It was expensive to monitor ECB, and it was difficult to treat corn
for the insect. Most applications offer only about 70 percent control.

?The Bt protein has been a boon across the board, and there are
choices for Bt protection against corn borer,? said Coultas. ?Farmers began
to notice that yields were better than anticipated. We went from a situation
where corn borer was an unrecognized problem to now a majority of what we
sell in Minnesota has the ECB protection trait in it.?

The European farmers also learned that U.S. growers have readily
adopted Roundup Ready corn as well as Roundup Ready soybeans.

?Roundup Ready corn is very easy, very cost effective and very
effective for weed control,? said Coultas. ?We take away a lot of the other
herbicides we would use - that the plant would have to metabolize and devote
energy and resources to - that create herbicide stress. We've pulled those
out of equation, and we have another increment to gain yield potential.?

In the near future, Monsanto hopes to offer new biotechnology events
to U.S. farmers, Coultas added.

The agricultural company anticipates adding a second Bt protein event
soon.

The next Bt protein event will affect insects differently than the
current Bt protein. Using the second Bt protein - plus planting non-Bt corn
in refuges - should help keep insects from developing resistance to Bt.

Monsanto also hopes to release a drought gene depending on regulatory
approvals.

And in the not-too-distant future, Monsanto wants to release a gene
that could improve nitrogen utilization in plants.

Coultas told the European farmers that U.S. farmers appreciate the
simplicity of using biotechnology products. Biotechnol-ogy also allows
farmers to grow more acres of crops with less labor.

?There are a lot of benefits,? he said. ?The more you make the
cropping system simple and effective, the better the acceptance of
biotechnology.?
[www.farmandranchguide.com]