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Non-Tech : Farming -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (95)	9/6/2000 6:06:31 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4440

<font color=DarkOrange>Another article on those coated soybeans. September 5, 2000 Coated Seeds for Farming By HENRY FOUNTAIN M&M's melt in your mouth (and not in your hands!) because, as the old TV commercial said, they are covered by a thin candy shell. A Purdue University agronomist is testing whether a similar idea will work for seeds as a means of increasing farm efficiency. Using a thin polymer coating developed by the Landec Corporation of Menlo Park, Calif., the agronomist, Dr. Tony J. Vyn, is testing whether coated seeds can be used to help farmers overlap winter wheat and soybeans in the same field. Relay planting, as the technique is known, is practiced with wheat and soybeans in southerly parts of the Midwest. The problem in more northerly parts, like Wisconsin and northern parts of Indiana and Illinois, is that planting the soybeans early enough so that the existing wheat stalks are not damaged by the planting machinery often results in soybean plants that are too spindly and high when the wheat harvest takes place. Thus much of the soybean crop is destroyed in harvesting the wheat. The polymer-coated seeds, which should be on the market in a few years, work like a time-release aspirin, delaying seed germination by about two weeks until heat and moisture in the soil break down the coating. That would allow farmers to plant soybeans early, without damaging the wheat, and yet produce soybean plants that are short enough to be missed when the wheat combine cuts through the field. Dr. Vyn said that the coating could also include a fungicide to ward off mold that can rot seeds. Fungicides maintain their activity longer in colder soil, so putting a coated seed into the ground earlier would have the added advantage of protecting it longer. Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company