08/01/07 Training the corn seed trainers

Land O'Lakes agronomists and plant breeders will be training Hytest Seed dealers and field men tomorrow in Nampa so they'll have a better understanding to carry an education message to farmers and answer their questions about corn hybrid selection. Josh Krenz is the national sales manager from Hytest Seeds. He says they've set up what they call 'answer plots' where seed selection is very important. KRENZ "How that affects the individual grower's piece of land. So its not about giving the grower a hybrid that will go across all of their acres because every single acre they have is different. Its about helping them position the right hybrids on the right soils so that way the genetics in the hybrids have the opportunity to perform the best they can in the environment." Later this month there will be four 16 acre answer plots in Idaho open to growers and dealers who want to see the feed and corn silage results for themselves. KRENZ "It's going in and actually pulling back husks, looking at ears. We dig up the roots for the hybrids so that you can see the different root systems so you can evaluate different traits." The answer plot field days are held August 14th in Caldwell, the 16th in Jerome, the 20th in Buhl and August 21st in Burley. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott