Australia
December 2020
From increasing yields and developing orobanche, downy mildew and herbicide resistance, to improving oleic oil content and shell and kernel size, Nuseed’s global sunflower R&D teams are working across North America, South America and Europe to deliver solutions.
Although classified as traditional breeding, Nuseed uses sophisticated plant science to advance the agronomic and end-use benefits of its sunflower hybrids. Its brand new state-of-the-art molecular and analytical lab at the West Sacramento Nuseed Innovation Center accelerates Nuseed’s ability to deliver industry leading hybrids for farmers, processors and end-use customers.
Here we speak with members of Nuseed’s global R&D team responsible for advancing their well primed sunflower hybrid pipeline.
Jim Gerdes
Jim Gerdes is Nuseed’s Sunflower R&D Lead and has held the role for the past seven and a half of his 30 plus year career focused primarily in sunflower breeding and management.
Jim’s priority at Nuseed is to lead the sunflower research efforts globally, maximizing efficiency and utilizing Nuseed’s talented researchers to drive success in the sunflower business.
Something Jim is particularly proud of is the efficient network across the globe (including teams in Serbia, Argentina and the US) that led to the development of an orobanche resistant sunflower hybrid.
Orobanche is a parasitic weed, which affects Western and Eastern Europe. The global breeding and lab teams were able to introgress (transfer) the orobanche trait into the parents of Hornet, Nuseed’s highest performing sunflower hybrid.
Jim says: “By working together, we’ve been able to introgress the trait, test the resulting hybrid combinations in yield trials throughout the Northern Hemisphere and validate the orobanche resistance in Serbia. We’ve also been able to purify/increase the parent lines in Breckenridge and California to turn over to the global parent seed team.”
Jeremy Klumper
Jeremy Klumper is part of the North American Leadership Team for Nuseed and is the Sunflower Station Lead for the US & Europe, providing cohesion and continuity to ensure project progress and team development. He started his career at Nuseed in 2008 as yield trial technician; planting, spraying and harvesting. By 2014 he became an oilseed breeding assistant to Jim and by 2017 was fully responsible for the North America oilseed program and started to plan testing for the European yield trials.
Jeremy says: “My current priority at Nuseed is the development of orobanche resistant germplasm for European markets. Nuseed has tremendous growth potential in these areas, and our genetics are high performing and well accepted. To fully capitalize on the potential, we need top end hybrids with orobanche resistance. Having just completed registration of several such hybrids, 2021 is an exciting launch year for us.”
Sanja Lazic
Sanja Lazic is Nuseed’s Station Manager in Serbia. Sanja has over 10 years’ experience working in agriculture including roles as a Plant Protection Engineer, Sales and Promotion Representative, Yield Trial Manager and Station Manager. This, combined with her Masters from the University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Agriculture, Department for Plant Protection and her Second Level Masters from the University of Bologna, Faculty of Agriculture, Department for Sustainable Development have supported her role at Nuseed.
Sanja’s focus at Nuseed is to manage the workflow for the station in Serbia and work closely with the global Nuseed research teams to aggressively drive pipeline and introgression projects, to enable commercial growth in targeted areas. Her work is mainly focused on sunflowers, but does also include sorghum and canola research.
Sanja says: “Nuseed is a global company that is growing and full of opportunity. In my role here in Serbia I get to meet new people, work alongside other experts, and have travelled around the world. The work is important, and the team is fantastic.”
Daniel Gonzalez Pippo
Daniel Gonzalez Pippo is a Sunflower Breeder at Nuseed, he lives and works in Venado Tuerto, Argentina. His role includes developing new sunflower hybrids for the Argentinian, Brazilian and Bolivian markets. He is a trained Agronomic Engineer, specializing in crop breeding for over 25 years.
Daniel says: “We spend many hours of our life working and Nuseed is an excellent place to be. I also love breeding crops and Nuseed gives me the opportunity to do what I’m passionate about.”
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