Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
August 13, 2009
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On May 21, Carl Griffey introduced Virginia seed
producers to “Merl” – a wheat variety developed for
improved milling and baking quality and mildew
resistance – at a field day in Mt. Holly, Va. The
Eastern Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension
Center, Virginia Grain Producers Association, and
Virginia Crop Improvement Association sponsored the
event. It included recognition of Griffey by the
Virginia Agribusiness Council for his contributions to
Virginia’s wheat and barley industries. |
Small-grain
farmers across the commonwealth will remember a leader in their
profession every time they grow a new variety of wheat released
by Virginia Tech.
Carl Griffey, professor of crop and soil environmental sciences
in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has named a new
public wheat variety after G. Merl Longest, co-founder of Goshen
Farm in Virginia’s Middle Peninsula.
“This follows a long tradition at Virginia Tech and elsewhere of
crop breeders naming new seeds after inspirational farmers,
scientists, and supporters of the agricultural industry,”
Griffey said. Griffey’s breeding program has developed or
released six hulled and three hull-less barley varieties, one
soft white winter, two hard red winter, one winter durum, and
more than 45 public and private soft red winter wheat varieties.
The University of Maryland; University of Guelph in Ontario,
Canada; and Kansas State University collaborated on several
variety releases.
A native of King and Queen County, Va., Longest exhibited his
love for agriculture from an early age. He and his identical
twin, H. Earl Longest, worked with a seed-corn grower in nearby
Essex County as teenagers. After serving in the Army during the
Korean conflict, they returned home and purchased Goshen Farm in
1954 from Virginia Seed Stocks, a subsidiary of the Virginia
Crop Improvement Association (VCIA). Over the next 50 years, the
operation grew from 200 acres to more than 1,200 acres of small
grain, seed corn, and soybeans.
In the early 1970s, Longest launched a hybrid seeds business
with the help of a Virginia Tech corn breeder and the VCIA
administrator. Longest Seeds became the largest seed-corn
producer in the commonwealth with customers in Virginia, North
Carolina, and West Virginia. Longest continued his relationship
with Virginia Tech and VCIA and later served as both director
and president of the Virginia Crop Improvement Board. He passed
away in 2003 at the age of 73.
Friends and family members remember Longest for the
relationships he maintained with seed producers and researchers
and for his commitment to the industry he loved. His son, George
Longest, wrote that naming the new variety “is such an honor to
my father as he truly loved his work with seed production.”
For decades, the university has named new seed varieties in
honor of inspirational people. Among them are Cyrus McCormick,
inventor of the wheat reaper and founder of International
Harvester Machinery; Thomas Hutcheson, former agronomy
department head and dean of agriculture at Virginia Tech; Tom
Starling, small-grains breeder; Curtis Roane, pathologist; Glenn
Buss, soybean breeder; and Bruce Massey, seed producer and
farmer.
Learn more about Virginia Tech’s Crop Genetics Group in the
related University Spotlight on Innovation: “New varieties of
soybeans, wheat, and barley.” |
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