Hitting the Bull's-Eye
Soybean breeders use analytical tools to target traits that can contribute to higher-yielding varieties.
The story of successful farming is told in the language of yield. To
increase yield is to increase farmer profit. While this quest is not
new, the tools used to clear the path to get there continue to shift and
improve.
Two centuries ago, the Industrial Revolution ignited greater farm productivity in the form of better equipment and improved processes to manufacture crop inputs. Today’s digital revolution, which ushered in the Information Age, is also contributing to increased productivity on
the farm. Telecommunications, computer programming, the Internet and
social media, all products of this age, have improved the way
agricultural professionals exchange and collect information. Beyond
making more information available, this age has also introduced advanced
analytical and mathematical methods that can help comb through the data
and find answers to multiple crop production questions with greater
precision and speed.
To modernize plant breeding, Syngenta is tapping into these revolutionary resources to improve breeding efficiency and success.
Innovative Problem Solving
Leading this effort is Joseph Byrum, Ph.D., head of soybean research and development (R&D) at Syngenta. His intense commitment to building better, higher-yielding soybeans has driven him and his team to look beyond traditional agricultural sources for answers.
“Agriculture can be an insular industry,” he says. “Open innovation, which involves engaging a much broader cross-section of the population and utilizing their expertise to create new solutions for farmers, was a new concept just five years ago. Regardless of where the technology comes from, we at Syngenta want the best solutions.”
In 2009, Byrum introduced open innovation to Syngenta as a problem-solving technique. It brought to life the Thoughtseeders™ program, a Web portal where scientists and other innovative thinkers, both inside and outside agriculture, can share their ideas with the company. This first program, aimed at collaborating with non-agriculture experts, was a groundbreaking step in redefining the way Syngenta responds to farmers’ needs.
“Open innovation means different things to different people,” Byrum says. “To me, it means being open to any form of problem-solving or offer of technology across Syngenta as well as outside the company.”
Unconventional Partnerships
One of the first outside partnerships that Byrum’s team formed was with KROMITE, a New Jersey–based decision analytics firm. Syngenta and KROMITE set out to develop new analytical systems to improve the process of breeding a wide variety of crops with greater yield. But KROMITE’s prior experience was within the pharmaceutical industry, not agriculture.
“Syngenta was the first ag company KROMITE had ever worked with,” says Bruce Luzzi, Ph.D., soybean seeds project lead at Syngenta. “KROMITE had no knowledge of plants, but it had vast knowledge of data analysis."
With support from KROMITE, Syngenta set out to model its plant breeding system to be more predictive. The result was the creation of a new system designed to anticipate the impacts of breeders’ decisions.
The Tools
Imagine working on a three-year project only to see it fail in the final moments. All of your work is lost, and you’re forced to start over. What if you could have predicted the critical errors or mistakes that caused failure? What if you could have made smarter, more informed decisions throughout the process, avoiding failure altogether?
For Syngenta soybean breeders, this is precisely the benefit of the company’s newly developed breeding program, called Y.E.S. Yield Engineering System™, which currently features four newly developed analytical and planning tools:
These tools are all part of a scientific discipline using advanced analytics and mathematics to optimize work processes. Known as operations research (OR), this concept is not new to certain segments of the agricultural industry, but it is a novel approach for plant breeders.
“Over the past 60 years, OR has been used in agriculture to optimize the feeding of livestock, to improve crop rotation, to manage farms and to assess public policy goals,” says Byrum. “Analytics has made farms and
This innovative approach to breeding is already making an impact in the field by bringing higher-yielding NK® Soybean varieties to market. “The yield potential of NK Soybeans has never been higher than with our new 2016 performance-class varieties,” says Doug Tigges, soybean genetics product manager at Syngenta. “The Y.E.S. Yield Engineering System has allowed our soybean breeders to make smarter, more efficient breeding decisions, resulting in a portfolio of high-yielding elite soybean genetics.”
Chris Blome, a Syngenta Seed Advisor™ in Alden, Iowa, has experienced firsthand the benefits of planting NK Soybeans. “NK Soybeans have the best genetic lineup, the most consistent yield and the strongest defensive packages throughout the industry,” he says. “Plus, the NK Soybeans pipeline is second to none.”
One of the biggest threats Blome faces each year is damage from soybean cyst nematodes (SCN). “We have heavy SCN pressure in this area,” he says. “The best way to manage the pressure is by planting SCN-resistant NK Soybean varieties. We also encourage other growers to treat their seed with Clariva® Complete Beans seed treatment, a combination of separately registered products. In trials on our farm, this combination has given us positive yield results—3.5 bushels per acre more than the untreated.”
To build on the success of the Y.E.S. Yield Engineering System on soybeans, Syngenta is beginning to use similar programs on all major crops, including corn, sunflowers and watermelons. Go to www.syngentaseeds.com for updates.
Two centuries ago, the Industrial Revolution ignited greater farm productivity in the form of better equipment and improved processes to manufacture crop inputs. Today’s digital revolution, which ushered in the Information Age, is also contributing to increased productivity on
the farm. Telecommunications, computer programming, the Internet and
social media, all products of this age, have improved the way
agricultural professionals exchange and collect information. Beyond
making more information available, this age has also introduced advanced
analytical and mathematical methods that can help comb through the data
and find answers to multiple crop production questions with greater
precision and speed.To modernize plant breeding, Syngenta is tapping into these revolutionary resources to improve breeding efficiency and success.
Innovative Problem Solving
Leading this effort is Joseph Byrum, Ph.D., head of soybean research and development (R&D) at Syngenta. His intense commitment to building better, higher-yielding soybeans has driven him and his team to look beyond traditional agricultural sources for answers.
“Agriculture can be an insular industry,” he says. “Open innovation, which involves engaging a much broader cross-section of the population and utilizing their expertise to create new solutions for farmers, was a new concept just five years ago. Regardless of where the technology comes from, we at Syngenta want the best solutions.”
In 2009, Byrum introduced open innovation to Syngenta as a problem-solving technique. It brought to life the Thoughtseeders™ program, a Web portal where scientists and other innovative thinkers, both inside and outside agriculture, can share their ideas with the company. This first program, aimed at collaborating with non-agriculture experts, was a groundbreaking step in redefining the way Syngenta responds to farmers’ needs.
“Open innovation means different things to different people,” Byrum says. “To me, it means being open to any form of problem-solving or offer of technology across Syngenta as well as outside the company.”
Unconventional Partnerships
One of the first outside partnerships that Byrum’s team formed was with KROMITE, a New Jersey–based decision analytics firm. Syngenta and KROMITE set out to develop new analytical systems to improve the process of breeding a wide variety of crops with greater yield. But KROMITE’s prior experience was within the pharmaceutical industry, not agriculture.
“Syngenta was the first ag company KROMITE had ever worked with,” says Bruce Luzzi, Ph.D., soybean seeds project lead at Syngenta. “KROMITE had no knowledge of plants, but it had vast knowledge of data analysis."
With support from KROMITE, Syngenta set out to model its plant breeding system to be more predictive. The result was the creation of a new system designed to anticipate the impacts of breeders’ decisions.
The Tools
Imagine working on a three-year project only to see it fail in the final moments. All of your work is lost, and you’re forced to start over. What if you could have predicted the critical errors or mistakes that caused failure? What if you could have made smarter, more informed decisions throughout the process, avoiding failure altogether?
For Syngenta soybean breeders, this is precisely the benefit of the company’s newly developed breeding program, called Y.E.S. Yield Engineering System™, which currently features four newly developed analytical and planning tools:
- Trait Introgression Tool. This tool allows breeders to enter different scenarios of the trait introgression process into a computer model and identify where in the process their plan may fail. For example, the tool will indicate if the number of breeding crosses is insufficient to develop a population large enough to identify the desired combination of traits. The tool pinpoints missteps before Syngenta begins a multiyear breeding project.
- Breeding Project Lead Tool. Success not only relies on effectively and efficiently identifying and improving genetic traits but also on where and when to conduct field trial activities. The Breeding Project Lead Tool determines the best combination of geographies to maximize the success of early-generation and yield trial activities, based on information that the breeders enter.
- Yield Trial Design Optimizer. From the two previous tools, Syngenta breeders know the best trait introgression scenario and best use of field locations to achieve breeding success. The Yield Trial Design Optimizer uses historical yield trial data and costs associated with yield trial designs (number of entries, replications and locations) to plot design cost against maximum yield output. The breeders can choose the design that effectively uses resources to identify varieties with the highest yield potential.
- Data Quality Cart Tool. Farmers know that no two fields are exactly the same. Variations in moisture levels, soil type, pest and disease pressure, and agronomic practices impact the uniformity and quality of data collected in the field. The Data Quality Cart Tool takes into account these environmental variations and makes adjustments to or eliminates data from a trial that may cause an inaccurate interpretation of the results.
These tools are all part of a scientific discipline using advanced analytics and mathematics to optimize work processes. Known as operations research (OR), this concept is not new to certain segments of the agricultural industry, but it is a novel approach for plant breeders.
“Over the past 60 years, OR has been used in agriculture to optimize the feeding of livestock, to improve crop rotation, to manage farms and to assess public policy goals,” says Byrum. “Analytics has made farms and
farmers more efficient, but we’re doing something unique at Syngenta. We’re applying OR to breeding to make the plants themselves more efficient. Each of our four tools comes into play at various phases of the development pipeline, with the end goal of giving growers better varieties to plant.”"The Y.E.S. Yield Engineering System has allowed our soybean breeders to make smarter, more efficient breeding decisions, resulting in a portfolio of high-yielding elite soybean genetics."
This innovative approach to breeding is already making an impact in the field by bringing higher-yielding NK® Soybean varieties to market. “The yield potential of NK Soybeans has never been higher than with our new 2016 performance-class varieties,” says Doug Tigges, soybean genetics product manager at Syngenta. “The Y.E.S. Yield Engineering System has allowed our soybean breeders to make smarter, more efficient breeding decisions, resulting in a portfolio of high-yielding elite soybean genetics.”
Chris Blome, a Syngenta Seed Advisor™ in Alden, Iowa, has experienced firsthand the benefits of planting NK Soybeans. “NK Soybeans have the best genetic lineup, the most consistent yield and the strongest defensive packages throughout the industry,” he says. “Plus, the NK Soybeans pipeline is second to none.”
One of the biggest threats Blome faces each year is damage from soybean cyst nematodes (SCN). “We have heavy SCN pressure in this area,” he says. “The best way to manage the pressure is by planting SCN-resistant NK Soybean varieties. We also encourage other growers to treat their seed with Clariva® Complete Beans seed treatment, a combination of separately registered products. In trials on our farm, this combination has given us positive yield results—3.5 bushels per acre more than the untreated.”
To build on the success of the Y.E.S. Yield Engineering System on soybeans, Syngenta is beginning to use similar programs on all major crops, including corn, sunflowers and watermelons. Go to www.syngentaseeds.com for updates.
share this article
