You are saying then that with some work/?luck? I can take my hybrid and
turn it into a stable Open-Pollinated variety with the same
characteristics. Then why are we spending all this money on hybrid seeds?
The farmers have no margin left to spend on unnecessary expenses.
If true, it seems this would be a money saving way to go. After all
farmers have the equipment, the land and the know-how to grow and harvest
the crop, so why not develop our own open pollinated types that works best
in our own area?
What if every farmer devoted, say 2 acres to his own research? You would
not lose the odd 20-70 dollars an acre from growing a regular crop and with
a little of your own work, you would have the potential to save money in
the long run.
Another benefit would be mental. At least you would be doing something so
save your farm from the inevitable fate that awaits you if you just go
along with the current system. I would not hold my breath waiting for the
congress et al to break up the grain/packing house monoplies so the expense
reduction is going to have to come on the input side. Nothing ventured,
nothing gained. Mike Miller
major snip
>AMcG> This led us to hybrids
>
>Hybrids are simply the results of natural breeding methods (cross
>pollination) that happen to NOT reproduce true to seed, due the
>instability of the particular genetic cross.
>
>Further cross breeding (continued seed selection) can sometimes revert
>this reversion to type. In other words, if the cross proves stable and
>reproduces true to type, you've got a new OP variety on your hands,
>which is harder to make proprietary. It has also been found that the
>tension involved in a genetic cross that is inherently unstable can
>sometimes introduce a kind of temporary (since it doesn't reproduce)
>vigor in the progeny.
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail