Ducks Unlimited and Bayer CropScience Team Up to Increase Winter Wheat in North America

Bayer CropScience and Ducks Unlimited (DU) believe winter wheat has an important role to play in sustainable agriculture on the prairies and have joined forces to launch a North American project called “Winter Cereals: Sustainability in Action.” The project aims to benefit wildlife habitat and take action on sustainable agriculture. Partnering with Ducks Unlimited under the “Winter Cereals: Sustainability in Action” program, Bayer CropScience will make a commitment of $20 million over five years to:

• Enable significant research to develop new winter wheat varieties adapted to prairie climatic conditions;

• Providing technical support and education programs;

• Promote improvements and research in agronomic practices; and

• Conduct waterfowl and environmental research to ensure a sustainable habitat and production systems.

The funding will be shared between the DU winter cereal programs in the U.S. and Canada.

Bayer and DU officials are in the process of meeting with NDSU, SDSU, University of Saskatchewan and Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge, Alberta winter wheat breeding programs to understand the best methods to enhance their breeding efforts and to facilitate cooperation between the institutions. Variety development was identified as the top long term priority by both of the DU winter cereal programs in the U.S. and Canada. NDSU is also working with the University of Minnesota to establish a joint winter wheat breeding program at NDSU.

Bill Buckner, head of North America and President and CEO of Bayer CropScience LP said, “By working with Ducks Unlimited, we want to expand the practice of growing winter cereals across the prairies in Canada and the United States. We recognize winter wheat is an excellent crop that provides economic advantages to growers when included in cropping rotations while also enhancing waterfowl and other wildlife habitats.”

"As leaders in the agriculture industry we see this initiative as an important and tangible part of delivering on our commitment to sustainable agriculture,” says Buckner. “The goal of Ducks Unlimited and Bayer CropScience in this initiative is to support this trend by investing in innovations and grower programs,” he says.

From a waterfowl conservation standpoint, one of the key limiting factors for continental waterfowl populations is a lack of nesting cover on the prairies. Ducks Unlimited Canada’s research has shown that the density of hatched nests in winter wheat fields is 24 times greater than in spring wheat.

“This partnership between Bayer CropScience and Ducks Unlimited has the potential to provide unprecedented opportunities for expanding winter wheat on the prairies,” said Don Young, Executive Vice President of Ducks Unlimited. “This is research that will not only benefit Ducks Unlimited waterfowl conservation and habitat efforts in the Prairie Pothole Region in Canada and the U.S., but also provide tremendous advantages to agricultural communities.”

DU currently employs two agronomists that conduct research and demonstration trials and provide agronomic assistance and education to growers. DU will be hiring or contracting three new agronomists to expand these activities to most of the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota and northern South Dakota.

Growers who have worked with the current winter cereals program have indicated that the research and education work have been far more important to them in retaining winter wheat in their crop rotation than incentive payments. Growers say it is far more important to teach a grower how to make winter wheat more profitable through better management practices that permanently increase their profitability. In fact, by far, a majority of the new growers have not participated in the incentive programs since the inception of the DU winter cereals program. With that said, DU still plans on pursuing incentives from other funding sources.

From an agronomic perspective, winter wheat provides economic advantages to producers when included in cropping rotations. Winter wheat can yield 10 to 30 percent higher than spring-seeded varieties, and fall planting allows growers to spread their workload thus reducing potential production risks. With improved best management practices and the agronomic advantages provided by winter wheat, it has become an attractive choice for many growers.

Bayer is to be commended for their vision and investment in winter wheat and this sustainable project. Bayer’s continued support will have a tremendous impact on the future of winter wheat in the Prairie Pothole Region in both the U.S. and Canada. Bayer has appointed Dr. Geoff Kneen, Vice President, to lead the project in the U.S. and Blake Vander Vorst will continue to provide leadership for DU.

About Ducks Unlimited

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with more than 12 million acres conserved in North America. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands - nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres important to waterfowl each year. In Canada, up to 70 percent of wetlands have disappeared in settled areas and wetland loss continues at an alarming rate.

Additional information about Ducks Unlimited U.S. is available at: www.ducks.org and www.ducks.org/agronomy.

About Bayer CropScience

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 5.8 billion (2007), is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of about 17,800 and is represented in more than 120 countries.

Further information on Bayer CropScience US is available at: www.bayercropscienceus.com.