Bayer research and development aims to reduce farmers’ challenges

CHICAGO — Farmers and their challenges are the focus of research and development at Bayer.

“Some of the biggest challenges for growers are insects, diseases and weeds,” said Mark Kidnie, business unit lead at Bayer. “We’ve got lots of tools and technologies we can deploy to help address these challenges.”

A European study in 2019 indicated a 30% average yield benefit by using crop protection products on food crops, said Kidnie during a presentation at the Regenerative Crop Systems for a Changing Planet — Bayer Innovation Update 2024 event.

“That equates to 550 million tons of additional food produced using crop protection products which is enough food to feed over 2 billion people,” he said.

If farmers did not have herbicides as a tool, Kidnie said, they would be tilling their soil more which reduces water and nutrient holding capacity and the soil’s ability to sequester carbon.

“Fungi are a real challenge because there are so many species, they impact all our major food crops, they’re highly adaptable, they spread far distances, they reduce yield and they impact food quality,” Kidnie said.

“Fungal pathogens cause a yield loss of 10% to 23% around the globe, which results in a $220 billion economic impact,” he said.

Since the 1990s, fungal pathogens have been moving to higher latitudes from tropical regions at a rate of about 7 kilometers per year, Kidnie said.

“As the planet warms, that is conducive for pathogens to establish in temperate areas where they were not able to establish before,” he said. “And wind events are moving pathogens further.”

Tar Spot

One of those newer diseases in North America is tar spot, which reduces the photosynthetic ability of the corn plant.

“It’s a common disease in Mexico and first identified in the U.S. in 2015,” Kidnie said. “It’s believed that Tropical Depression Bill moved this disease into the U.S.”

Since the tar spot inoculum overwinters on corn residue, it is here to stay in the United States.

“It can be extremely devastating to yields, up to a loss of 50 bushels per acre,” Kidnie said.

Tar spot spreads through the corn plant, leads to premature death, reduces yields and impacts stalk quality.

“We’re not only losing yield, but it turns into a mess to harvest,” Kidnie said.

“Three years ago we launched Delaro Complete, which is very effective at controlling tar spot with the three modes of action in the formulation,” he said.

“Over the last number of years, we’ve been looking at introgressing native traits into our germplasm,” he said. “This pathogen is common in Mexico and we do have some resistant alleles we can bring in from that genetic library into North America.”

Bayer is utilizing Climate FieldView to develop predictive disease modeling by using machine learning, field history, germplasm information and environmental conditions.

“Ideally, we want to build a field-specific recommendation tool that can help farmers prioritize where they are at high risk for tar spot infection,” Kidnie said.

Soybean Innovations

For soybean growers, Bayer is continuing to bring more choices, options and innovations.

“The pipeline ahead of us is as exciting and robust as it has ever been,” said Kacy Perry, North America soybean business lead for Bayer.

“By the end of the decade, we’re going to bring two soybean traits, HT4 and HT5,” she said. “HT4 has three herbicide tolerant traits, glyphosate, glufosinate and dicamba plus two more, 2,4-D and mesotrione.”

It is critical for farmers to have access to multiple modes of action, Perry said, because every season is different.

“With five herbicide tolerances in one bean that gives farmers a lot of application flexibility to target different weeds and go after resistant and tough-to-control weeds,” Perry said.

“With our advanced precision breeding, we’re excited about the genetics we’ll launch with HT4 across a wide variety of maturity groups,” she said. “HT5 is in phase 3 development and it will have six traits with the addition of PPO tolerance.”

Also in phase 3 of the pipeline is the development of a soybean seed placement tool.

“The goal is to be able to provide personalized and science-based placement recommendations,” Perry said. “It will hopefully reduce risks on the operation and also allow farmers to maximize yield.”