By Jennifer M. Latzke

The answer to drought-tolerant corn may just come out of a research plot
near the tiny town of Etter in the Texas Panhandle.
During the Texas AgriLife Research and Texas Corn Producers Board Field Day
at the North Plains Research Field in Etter, researchers debuted their work
on breeding drought tolerant corns for food, feed and silage production.

Wenwei Xu, associate professor of corn breeding at Texas Tech University,
started off the field day by explaining to producers that there are a lot of
different traits researchers can select for when breeding for
drought-tolerant corn.

"There's delayed silking, and pollination," he said. "For producers, though,
it's yield. Looking good in the field is not enough. They want yields and
low aflatoxin." Xu explained that drought-tolerant projects at the field
near Etter have a goal of cutting water usage by 10 percent with the corn
still making a profitable crop.

And, to do so, they are looking at tropical varieties of corns from foreign
sources, rather than traditional temperate varieties found in breeding
programs in Iowa and the Midwest.

"We're trying to develop a unique germplasm that's adapted to the Texas
environment," Xu said.

To do this, Xu and his colleagues use conventional and molecular breeding
methods to transfer desirable genes from tropical and subtropical corns into
temperate varieties. There are three test sites in Texas the researchers are
using, including Halfway, Lubbock and Etter. Xu explained that in 2008, the
researchers are studying about 500 hybrids, under varying watering levels
using pivot irrigation.

In his report, Xu explained that corn in the United States is primarily a
child of two races of maize from more than 250 identified corns from around
the world.

"U.S. commercial hybrids only use about 5 percent of available corn
germplasm," Xu explained. "Most of our breeding efforts start by crossing
tropical corn with temperate elite lines and then selecting for desirable
traits to broaden genetic diversity." The research aims to introduce useful
genes from exotic corn to improve stress tolerance, agronomic productivity,
disease resistance, insect resistance, and value-added grain
characteristics.

Some of the test plots at the Etter station include testcrosses of lines
developed through the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) Project, which is
a cooperative effort of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Ag Research
Service, land grant universities, private industry, and other international
and non-governmental organizations. It uses sources of germplasms from
public and private contributors, from the United States and from Argentina,
Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Thailand.

The field day also showcased some of the work from the entomology sector.
Jerry Michels, Entomology Research Program director for the Texas AgriLife
Extension Service at Amarillo, discussed work being done to learn more about
the migratory patterns of corn rootworms. The research, funded through the
TCPB, collects western corn rootworm adults and uses data from the Texas
High Plains Evapotranspiration Network. The researchers have created a field
model that shows how the corn rootworms migrate according to site-specific
meteorological data.

Scott Averhoff, chairman of the TCPB, updated growers on the status of the
South East Region Aflatoxin Program. He and Kerry Mayfield, senior research
associate with Texas AgriLife Extension discussed how some of the tropical
corn lines used in the Texas breeding programs may offer aflatoxin
resistance.

Bruce Spinhirne, a research associate at the station, presented research
about silage yield and quality under different irrigation treatments. And,
Brent Bean, agronomist with Texas AgriLife also discussed corn silage
performance.

After lunch, producers were updated on the North Plains Groundwater
Conservation District's policy and initiatives, as well as the progress on
the Ogallala Aquifer Initiative. Tom Sell, of Combest, Sell and Associates
discussed the new farm bill via a teleconference call.

Representatives from the major commercial corn hybrid companies were also on
hand to discuss the performance of their hybrids in university trials at the
station. T.K. Baker, with Monsanto, Robert Bowling, with Pioneer, and Peter
Hill of Dow Agrosciences were on hand for producers' questions.
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