Fort Collins, Colorado and Ankeny, Iowa, USA / St Beauzire, France
February 29th, 2016

Three major agricultural organizations have announced the establishment of their strategic collaboration toward innovative and novel solutions for wheat producers. This agreement targets the development and distribution of wheat varieties with a non-GMO trait conferring tolerance to a new herbicide for wheat. The collaborating partners include, Colorado Wheat Research Foundation, Inc. (CWRF), Albaugh LLC, global leader for post-patent agro-chemicals, and Limagrain (through its listed company Vilmorin & Cie), a farmer-owned international seed group. This unique and original three-way partnership will deploy the use of this technology exclusively on a worldwide basis.

“This collaboration confirms a new era for CWRF building on the request from our Colorado wheat producers to find innovative and cost-effective solutions for the many challenges producers face while maximizing producer profits,” said Dan Anderson, President for CWRF and farmer from Haxtun, Colorado.

“We are thrilled to be a part of this dynamic collaboration, taking the technology produced from our partners at the world-class public wheat research program at Colorado State University and commercializing it for our constituents to provide the novel solutions to be competitive in the global marketplace,” Kim Warner, Vice President of Operations for CWRF, added.

“As we focus on innovation, it is collaborations like this that will help us deliver new technologies to farmers across the North American cereal market and around the globe,” said Spencer Vance, President for Albaugh LLC, North America. “We are excited about working with our new partners and our channel to deliver this new and novel technology to wheat growers.”

“This strategic partnership is the first step to help us focus and deliver novel solutions to cereal growers globally,” stated Albaugh’s Marketing and Product Development Manager Chad Shelton. “Delivering a new cereal herbicide production system that is driven by innovation, performance and grower value will be the first exciting result of this collaboration.”
“Through this agreement, Limagrain is pursuing the implementation of its wheat genetics and traits development project, with the ultimate ambition of becoming the world reference for the most widely cultivated species in the world”, commented Bruno Carette, VP for Limagrain Field Seeds.

“For a long time, wheat has been lagging behind other U.S. field crops in terms of research investment and genetic improvement. This project represents a giant stride towards enhancing the profitability of the wheat crop for U.S. growers. The first varieties will be available to growers in Colorado in 2018 and for other parts of the US is 2020,” said Frank Curtis, Chief Operating Officer at Limagrain Cereal Seeds LLC.

Website: http://www.limagrain.com

Published: March 1, 2016