S&W has made significant progress toward its evolution into a completely integrated agricultural seed company
S&W Seed Company, a global agricultural technology company based in the US, has provided an update on its seed trait technology development and commercialization activities.
“Over the past few years, S&W has made significant progress toward its evolution into a completely integrated agricultural seed company. Key to that transformation has been the development, and now the commercial launch, of proprietary seed trait technology products,” commented Mark Wong, CEO of S&W Seed Company. “The commercialization of these products is anticipated to transform the operating profile of S&W into a high growth, high margin business, with more than 50% of our gross profit contribution within the next decade expected to come from these new tech products. With a highly accomplished management team that has successfully developed, marketed, licensed, and sold similar trait technologies over the years, I am highly optimistic that S&W is entering a new era.”
Lead Trait Technology Products
Double Team Sorghum (DT):
- Non-GMO tolerance to broad-spectrum grass herbicide.
- Commercial launch expected in spring 2021.
- Potential to revolutionize the sorghum market in the same way other weed control technologies have enhanced yields for crops such as corn, soybeans and cotton.
- DT trait is expected to have the highest value of any commercial sorghum trait currently in the market.
Improved Quality Alfalfa (IQ):
- Designed to provide farmers a new way to produce alfalfa forage with improved ruminant digestibility.
- Commercial launch expected in fall 2021.
- Improved digestibility increases efficiency of dairy operations, resulting in more milk per ton of feed, higher income for alfalfa producers, and reduced dietary wastage.
- Initially developed for non-dormant alfalfa varieties, to be followed by dormant alfalfa variety options in 2022 and beyond.
Dhurrin-Free Sorghum (DF):
- Dhurrin is a natural toxin that sorghum produces to protect itself from grazing animals when the plant is under stress from drought, temperature fluctuation or other conditions. In some circumstances, the biproduct of dhurrin metabolism, prussic acid, can kill livestock.
- Genetically removing dhurrin can eliminate the risks associated with grazing on or producing hay from stressed sorghum fields.
- Developed in partnership with and licensed from Purdue University.
