By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Cisco Co. recently hosted a webinar to inform farmers and seed dealers up-to-date on Roundup Ready alfalfa, now that the product has been fully deregulated.

The federal government announced this decision on Jan. 27, on the heels of its environmental impact statement last December. It said then it would probably deregulate Roundup Ready (RR) alfalfa; however, it wasn’t sure if it would impose geographic restrictions and isolation distances as conditions on its use. In the end, it did not.

This final decision ends a multiyear legal battle with environmental and other groups opposed to agricultural biotechnology. The Cisco webinar last week featured Jeremy Hayward, an account manager at WL Research, a company that develops and markets different alfalfa seed varieties. WL Research is owned by Forage Genetics International.

“I know for us and for you as well, it’s been a long time coming,” Hayward said of the final deregulation decision. “So we’re very ready. We hit the ground running with meetings like this.”

Hayward started out discussing WL’s conventional alfalfa brands, including 353LH (Leaf Hopper), 354HQ and 363HQ. “The link between the conventional 350 that we’ve got, and the Roundup Ready big three that we’ve got, we feel makes things pretty convenient for you on the marketing side, in talking to growers about choice, on Roundup Ready varieties,” he said.

Roundup Ready alfalfa “really mirrors that big three” of conventional alfalfa offerings, Hayward explained. “So when we talk about the big three on the conventional side, it’s really close to the big three on the Roundup Ready side.”

Hayward described WL 355.RR as the “leader” of its RR alfalfa line of products. “We’re super confident of its yield power and tons per acre,” he said. In addition to the 355, WL is also marketing its 350LH.RR and 367HQ.RR.
In a PowerPoint presentation, Hayward compared 355.RR with several conventional alfalfa seed brands, including an inexpensive brand called Vernal, in three-year replicated trials. In one test involving seven different sites, 355.RR yielded 21.69 tons per acre, while Vernal yielded 18.10 tons per acre. It beat out its own 343HQ 21.69 to 21.64.

In a test on forage quality, Hayward displayed a comparison of 355.RR with several other brands. For example, for crude protein, 355.RR beat out Pioneer 54V54 21.5 percent to 20.9 percent; for true in vitro digestibility, the RR variety was 81.7 percent, while the conventional variety was at 80.5 percent.
“It’s a great product as far as forage quality and there’s a lot of other data that backs that up,” Hayward said.

He also discussed 367HQ.RR. He described it as the only FD 5 RR alfalfa available. It has a fall dormancy of 4.8 and winter hardiness 1.7.
“With winter hardiness 1.7, we’re going to be great on that in Indiana and surrounding states,” Hayward said.

On 367HQ.RR, he compared its quality with other brands, including AmeriStand 403T. For example, for true in vitro digestibility 367HQ.RR scored 79.9 percent, compared to AmeriStand 403T with 79.1 percent.

“It’s a product we can be very confident in as far as forage quality goes,” Hayward said.

He added they probably won’t run out of 355 in 2011, but he’s not so sure about the other two brands. “The other two are going to be a little short as far as supply goes,” he said.

On treatments, Hayward doesn’t think growers will be required to use a Monsanto branded product, but he isn’t sure. “My thinking is that they probably will not,” he explained. “We don’t want that to happen.”

He said RR alfalfa needs to be treated with glyphosate when it’s 3-5 inches in length to get the best weed protection. He said glyphosate-sensitive seedlings are about 1 percent or fewer. Hayward said a study conducted with Monsanto in 2006 found an advantage of $49 an acre with RR alfalfa, including herbicide and other costs, compared with conventional alfalfa.

In 2008, he said growers reported an advantage with RR alfalfa of 0.9 tons an acre, worth about $108, compared with similar stands of conventional alfalfa. “Growers definitely perceive a yield advantage,” Hayward said.

Steve Houghton, seed division manager for Cisco, said the 355.RR will cost $7 a pound. The 350LH.RR and 367HQ.RR will cost $8 a pound. Those are the retail prices and they include the tech fee.

Supply of the 367 will be “extremely short,” he said. When asked what that meant, he said it will last about a week; however, there should be plenty of 355.