Author Archive | mary jane

Corn Growing in the Southern Hemisphere Winter nursery is a common term used by plant breeders to define the activities undertaken during the winter season to support the breeding activities after the summer season in their home location. Winter nurseries are used for advancing breeding generations, making seed of new hybrid combinations for testing, seed increases […]

Practical Farmers of Iowa Conference This past weekend, we participated in the Practical Farmers of Iowa Annual Conference . We were one of about 75 exhibitors. On our table, we featured jars of grain of GEI specialty hybrids, their respective brochures and products made from some of the specialties. We also had brochures and yield data for GEI conventional and […]

Upcoming Event: Practical Farmers of Iowa Conference The Practical Farmers of Iowa Annual Conference will be held on January 19-20. Where: Scheman Building, ISU, Ames, Iowa. We will have a table at the expo. Stop by and say hello. Evaluation of Three GEI Specialty Corns We recently underwent an evaluation of the nutritional value of the grain of […]

Welcome to the November edition of our information exchange platform!   This month we’ll share new hybrid selections and their data results, plus a recipe that’s sure to make Fido happy this holiday season. Organic Practices that Challenge the Production System Many organic farmers plant their corn fields late to avoid cross pollination from neighboring fields […]

Our Luther, IA Nursery: The Season in Review The planting season for corn in Luther, Iowa started in April for the early starters, with some farmers beginning around April 10th. For most farmers, April 20th is the official starting point to comply with the crop insurance terms. We planted our breeding plot and yield test field […]

Thank You to All Field Day Attendees: Our field day on September 7 th turned out well. We were delighted to welcome old friends and new people interested in what we do. There was a lot of interaction with questions and answers. For those who couldn’t make it, we can recap a few highlights. Agronomic Practices to Maximize […]

Field Day: Agricultural Technologies for Maximum Yield in Organic & Conventional Production Systems On September 7th, GEI corn breeders Mary Jane and Alix Paez will be hosting a field day at their Luther, IA research location. The field day will include a seminar covering topics of current interest to farmers producing conventional or organic corn. There […]

Our Focus on Innovation Hybrid corn development requires a continuous and sustained effort. It takes 5-7 years to develop a new hybrid using standard breeding schemes; shorter breeding cycles could be accomplished using biotechnology tools, double haploid, etc. Currently there is lots of excitement about the possibilities with gene editing and the possibility of creating […]

Season, Planting, & Field Updates This year we finished planting our nursery, yield test and expo on May 7th.  Other farmers in the area had planted their corn about two weeks earlier.  It took awhile for their seed to sprout because the soil was a little bit cool.  Because we plant inbred seed for our […]

We Are Corn Breeders We recently met a woman in her 90s who was very curious about what we do and how we do it.  When we told her that we were corn breeders, she wanted more information.  We told her about our work in the corn field and how we cross pollinate corn by […]