Seed E-News

December 17, 2004

Successful Corn & Sorghum and Soybean Seed Research Conferences & Seed Expo 2004
The 59th Corn and Sorghum Seed Research Conference, 34th Soybean Seed Research Conference and Seed Expo 2004 were held December 8-10, 2004 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago with great success. Attracting over 2,500 seed industry professionals, the convention had well-attended sessions and a number of new features for 2004. Among the highlights was the late addition of a session on the arrival of Soybean Rust in the United States, delivered by Dr. Matthew Royer of USDA/APHIS on Wednesday, December 8. Dealing with an issue that was only two weeks old, the session saw a standing-room only audience. The Corn & Sorghum Seed Research Conference also saw a good attendance at its Breeding and Genetics session on Thursday, December 9 which featured William Tracy of the University of Wisconsin, Guenter Seitz of AgReliant Genetics, Don Duvick of Iowa State University, and Chad Geater of Syngenta Seeds.

Seed Expo 2004 also had new features this year with the addition of the Seed Expo Exhibitor Showcase, which provided exhibitors with an opportunity to demonstrate their products, a Cyber Café, and the new Seed Expo Reception. Another innovation was a Seed Expo Exhibitors Meeting with ASTA Associates Division officers and ASTA staff who took away several ideas on how the Seed Expo might be improved for future years.

Vegetable & Flower Conference Registration
You can now register on-line for ASTA’s Vegetable & Flower Conference in San Francisco January 22-25, 2005. Simply follow this link Registration. Please note that late fees will be charged for registrations made after January 12, 2005.

FuSE holds First Industry Event
Future Seed Executives (FuSE) successfully held its first industry event at the ASTA 2004 Corn & Sorghum and Soybean Research Conference in Chicago in December. Nearly 60 potential sponsors and members heard opening remarks from ASTA President/CEO Dick Crowder, ASTA Chairman Paul Bennett, Management Skills Committee Chair Don Threet and Purdue University's Betty Sue Jones as well as a brief presentation by the FuSE Founders Committee regarding FuSE's 2005 program offerings. Future seed executives from more than 20 companies and nearly 10 universities learned how to become more involved with the FuSE committee and company representatives learned about opportunities to host the first educational sessions in 2005.

FuSE’s is planning a second industry event to be held at the January, 2005 ASTA Vegetable and Flower Meeting in San Francisco, CA on Monday January 24, from 5-6 p.m. To participate in the FuSE launch events, individuals must be registered for the ASTA Conference. Whether you are a more senior seed industry executive or a future seed executive, you are invited to attend, network with future executives and learn how FuSE will prepare the seed industry’s next generation.

If you would like more information on getting involved with FuSE, please contact one of the following FuSE representatives:

For more information on becoming a member of ASTA, visit our Member Services. To register for the ASTA Vegetable & Flower Conference in January Conference, follow this link Registration.

Illinois Department of Agriculture Schedules Soybean Rust Informational and Training Sessions
On December 15, the Illinois Department of Agriculture in cooperation with University of Illinois Extension released a schedule of soybean rust informational and training sessions to be held from December 2004 through March 2005. The schedule incorporates speakers who will address the issues farmers and crops specialists will face in the upcoming season as well as educate them on scouting, identification, sampling and management practices. For more information, follow this link Training. Anyone interested in attending a session should bookmark the Illinois Department of Agriculture web page.

New Company Moves to Missouri to Wage War on Soybean Rust
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that, days after Asian soybean rust appeared in Missouri farm fields for the first time, Charles Niblett, a plant pathologist from Florida, arrived saying that he can genetically modify crops to ward off fungi, such as soybean rust. To read more on this story, follow this link Soybean Rust.

USDA Considers Amending Imported Nursery Stock Regulations
On December 9, 2004, he U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced that it is seeking public comments through an "advance notice of proposed rulemaking" on its existing imported nursery stock regulations. Nursery stock is also known as "plants for planting." According to the International Plant Protection Convention, plants for planting are "living plants and parts thereof, including seeds and germplasm, intended to remain planted, to be planted or to be replanted to ensure their subsequent growth, reproduction or propagation." Under current regulations, all plants for planting are allowed to enter the United States if the shipment is accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate and has been inspected and found to be free of plant pests, unless the importation is specifically prohibited or further restricted by the regulations. For more information and how to comment, follow this link Nursery Regulations. APHIS will consider comments received on or before March 10, 2005.

USDA Amends User Fee Regulations for Agricultural Services
On December 10, 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it is amending its user fee regulations by adjusting fees charged for certain agricultural quarantine and inspection (AQI) services to reflect the anticipated costs of providing these activities through fiscal year 2010. For more information about the increases and how to comment, follow this link APHIS Fees. APHIS will consider comments received by February 7, 2005.

USDA Grants Protection to 14 New Plant Varieties
In Washington, DC on December 9, 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued certificates of protection to developers of 14 new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include corn, rice and peanut. The 14 certificates are being issued under the Plant Variety Protection Act. The certificates require that the varieties be new, distinct, uniform and stable. The owners will have the exclusive right to reproduce, sell, import and export their products in the United States for the duration of protection. The 14 certificates are:

• the 7SH382 and 6RC172 variety of corn, developed by Agrigenetics Inc., doing business as Mycogen Seeds, Indianapolis, IN;
• the NP2222 and NP2316 varieties of corn, developed by Syngenta Seeds Inc., Minneapolis, MN;
• the M-206*, M-205* and M-104* varieties of rice, developed by California Cooperative Rice Research Foundation Inc., Biggs, CA;
• the CL121*, CL141*, Earl*, Cheniere, Pirogue and CF51* varieties of rice, developed by Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Crowley, LA; and
• the Tamrun OL 02* variety of peanut, developed by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station , TX

* In the United States, seed of this variety (1) shall be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed and (2) shall conform to the number of generations specified by the owner of the rights (84 STAT. 1542, as amended, 7 U.S.C. 2321 ET SEQ). USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service administers the Plant Variety Protection Act, which provides time- limited marketing protection to developers of new and distinct seed- reproduced and tuber-propagated plants ranging from farm crops to flowers. For additional information contact the Plant Variety Protection Office at telephone (301) 504-5518, fax (301) 504-5291 or the Internet at www.ams.usda.gov/science/PVPO/pvpindex.htm.

Illegal Seed Industry Gains Market Share in Brazil
Brazilian soybean, cotton and corn seed producers are being swamped by a rapidly growing black market in illegal seeds, the Brazilian Seed Producers Association (Abrasem) reported Reuters this week. Ivo Carraro, research director at Abrasem, told Reuters that the spread of smuggled, pirated or illegal conventional and genetically modified seeds has jumped to 12.5 million hectares of the country's area planted with grains in 2003/04 from 7.5 million the year before. For more on this story, follow this link Illegal Seed Industry.

U.S. Grains Council Global Update
At the request of the Corn & Sorghum Division, ASTA E-News includes a link to the U.S. Grains Council’s weekly Global Updates. Click on the link to read the Global Updates for December 3, 2004, December 10, 2004 and December 17, 2004.

Industry and People

If you have any personnel changes, or other developments in your company, that you would like included in E-News, please send details to ppatterson@amseed.org.

ASTA Meetings & Opportunities

January 22-25, 2005
ASTA 44th Vegetable & Flower Conference
Grand Hyatt San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

February 16-18, 2005
ASTA Advanced Management Forum
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN

February 28-March 3, 2005
18th ASTA Management Academy
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN

June 19-22, 2005
122nd ASTA Annual Convention
Sheraton Seattle Hotel and Tower
Seattle, WA

November 5-8, 2005
ASTA 51st Farm & Lawn Seed Conference
Westin Crown Center
Kansas City, MO

December 7-9. 2005
ASTA 60th Corn & Sorghum and
35th Soybean Conferences and
Seed Expo 2005
Hyatt Regency
Chicago, IL

July 8-12, 2006
Joint ASTA-CSTA Annual Convention
Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chicago, IL

Upcoming Events

January 2005
Minnesota Crop Improvement Association
The Minnesota Crop Improvement Association will be holding its annual meeting on January 20-21, 2005, in St. Cloud, MN. If you require more information, you should contact:

Alana Rogers
Project Support Specialist
Minnesota Crop Improvement Association
1900 Hendon Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
Tel: 1-800-510-MCIA

February 2005
Indiana Crop Improvement Association Annual Conference
The Indiana Crop Improvement Association (ICIA) will be holding its 2005 Annual Conference on February 3-4, 2005 at the Sheraton North Hotel, Keystone at the Crossing, Indianapolis, IN. Prior that on February 2, ICIA is also holding the Illinois/Indiana Seed Conditioning Workshop at the same location. For more information, check out the web site at www.indianacrop.org or contact ICIA at

Larry Svajgr, Executive Director
Indiana Crop Improvement Association, Inc.
7700 Stockwell Road
Lafayette, IN 47909
Tel: 765-523-2535
Fax: 765-523-2536
Email: svajgr@indianacrop.org

March 2005
Symposium on “Plant Breeding and the Public Sector”
Michigan State University will be conducting a symposium March 9-11, 2005 to address the issue of who will train plant breeders in the U.S. and around the world. The keynote speakers will be:

• Dr. P. Stephen Baenziger (Eugene W. Price Distinguished Professor, University of Nebraska) – Plant Breeding Training in North America
• Dr. Fred Bliss (Senior Director, R & D Special Projects, Seminis Seeds and former Will W. Lester Endowed Chair at The University of California) – Plant Breeding in the Private Sector
• Gurdev Khush (Former Head of Plant Breeding at IRRI and World Food Prize 1996) – Plant Breeding Training in the International Sector

During the symposium, the participants will discuss:

• What kind of training do plant breeders need?
• What is the most effective balance between classical and molecular training?
• Should the training differ between domestic and international students?
• How will we provide improved varieties of subsistence crops?
• How can the private and public sector most effectively partner to train new generations of plant breeders

The number of participants will be limited to about 100 people to facilitate discussion. You can find more information and a registration form at http://www.hrt.msu.edu/PBSymp/.

April 2005
ISTA Ordinary Meeting 2005
At the invitation of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DOAE) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, ISTA will be holding its Ordinary Meeting 2005 in Bangkok, Thailand April 25-28, 2005. To register, follow this link ISTA Online. The meeting is aimed at discussing and deciding on proposals for changes to the ISTA International Rules for Seed Testing and business items of the Association, with the international participation of ISTA delegates and representatives from both the seed industry and governments, including experts in seed technology, scientific research and laboratory accreditation.

May 2005
ISF Congress 2005
The ISF Congress 2005 will be held in Santiago, Chile, May 30-June 1, 2005. The ISF Congress 2005 web site, which is under construction, can be found Here.