Abraham Lincoln famously said, “the best way to predict your future is to create it,” which was the goal of the inaugural Corn Research Ideation Workshop on March 28-30, 2018 in St. Louis. With growth in corn production and especially during continued low corn prices, U.S. corn farmers need to be more efficient with inputs while also working to discover new and novel markets for corn.
The workshop brought together a group of 25 U.S. corn producers and 65 corn production and sustainability experts from public universities, the USDA, and private seed, chemical, and feed/food companies. Among them were Drs. Chad Lee and Hannah Poffenbarger from the University of Kentucky.
“We are very thankful for KyCorn’s sponsorship of two researchers to attend this workshop,” Lee said. “I was pleased to interact with so many researchers and scientists across the country involved in researching corn. We spent a lot of time on soil health and soil management. We can be proud of our no-till system here in Kentucky, and cover crops with no-till can help us even more. I was very pleased with those conversations.”
Other discussions focused on N management, water quality and specialty crops, as well as problems experienced by U.S. corn producers and downstream users of grain. These discussions aim to define potential research needs and R&D partnerships in four targeted areas: Digital/Precision Ag, Germplasm/Breeding, Agronomy/Crop Protection and Sustainability.