Here on a rooftop overlooking the research facility is where we said auf Wiedersehen to BASF at Limburgerhof before we headed off to Brussels, so this is where my coverage of that event comes to a close.
However, I will be posting some more from that trip on Domestic Fuel, since biofuels were a major topic there and in Brussels, as well as here in Japan.
To our BASF and Quarry friends, I say “Danke, dank.”
Before those treated seeds can be planted in a farmer’s field, BASF has to make sure they will germinate and grow successfully, and that is the job of Dr. Michael Merk – just call him “the Germinator.”
“We test all different seeds in terms of germination,” he says. “The germination is very important to see if there is any damage in terms of germination on the roots or any delays.”
Merk says doing the germinating in the lab as opposed to in the field speeds the whole process because it can be done quickly and at any time of the year.
Listen to my interview with Dr. Merk here:
basf-merk.mp3
View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels
Our final stop at the BASF research facility last week was the seed treatment center where we heard from Dr. Andreas Landes who is in charge of the center.
“Our goals here are the development of products which are easy to use,” said Dr. Landes. “Seed treatment is one of the most target oriented crop protection measures you can imagine.”
Like everything else in BASF product development, quite a bit of work goes into creating treated seeds. “We are involved from the early development stage, from the research phase,” he said.
The result of their efforts is a rainbow of seeds carrying chemicals right on them to make crop protection easier, safer and more effective for farmers.
Listen to my interview with Dr. Landes here:
basf-landes.mp3
View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels
Okay, so if Dr. Speakman was excited about fungi, Dr. Christoph Kunast is simply buggy about insects.
Kunast’s job with BASF is ecotoxoxicology, which he explains “is the science of side effects of chemicals against living organisms.”
“What we must ensure for registration purposes is that these side effects are acceptable,” said Kunast. What that means is politically driven to some extent, he says, and can be some what of a moving target as the criteria keeps getting more stringent.
Dr. Kunast spent some time talking about Colony Collapse Disorder and its effects on his honey bee friends and what might be causing it. He also showed us his little hissing cockroach friend – a short video we’ll post here soon.
Listen to Dr. Kunast’s opening monologue about ecotoxicology here:
basf-kunast.mp3
Post Update: Here’s that video.
View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels
This is a guy who really loves fungi.
Mycologist Dr. John-Bryan Speakman is a research scientist with BASF Fungicide Research and you wouldn’t believe how excited he can get talking about fungi. But some of them are really very pretty. I never knew there were so many different types of fungi with so many colors and shapes and sizes. We thought BASF could start a new business making paperweights and jewelry out of them!
“The mycologists estimate there are about 1.6 million fungal species,” says Speakman. “To date we have identified about 85,000 of these. There are about 8,000 plant pathogenic fungi in the world.” And can you guess what plant is the most impacted by fungi? It is actually grass – some 160 fungi can create problems for turfgrass and golf courses.
Dr. Speakman also demonstrated BASF’s new Stargate method of applying test compounds to plants. “It enables us to reduce the amount of compound being sprayed,” Speakman said. It also runs by computer to reduce human exposure to unknown compounds. I shot a little video of that which is being edited and we should be able to post here before too long.
Listen my interview with Dr. Speakman here:
basf-speakman.mp3
Post Update: Here’s that video.
View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels
Since our sponsor for coverage of this year’s IFAJ Congress is Pioneer I couldn’t help but post a picture of Jurii Mikhailov, Univest Media, Ukraine. Jurii was sporting his Pioneer t-shirt during our first full day of activities.
We’ve had a chance to spend some time talking with Jurii and like with all the participants there’s lots we can learn from our counterparts in other countries around the world. This is one of the great benefits of being active with IFAJ. I wish more U. S. ag journalists would take advantage of this great resource.
IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: 
A main sponsor for the IFAJ Congress here in Japan is Alltech. One of their representatives traveling with us is Billy Frey. He was onstage presenting the IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism Awards. Cindy was there while I was working in another location at the time so I’m not sure who is on stage with Billy here. Maybe somebody can leave a comment and identify him.
The recipients are Goran Djakovic of Serbia, Clemmie Gleeson of Great Britain, Jiri Masek of the Czech Republic and Karli Flinta-Murphy of Canada. The Award supports their participation here at the Congress.
“We are fortunate to have such talented young journalists in our member countries,” says IFAJ President David Markey of Ireland . “All the recipients are poised to become leaders in their guilds and in the federation.” The travel scholarship recognizes the leadership potential of young members from countries belonging to the federation. It encourages their involvement in the international organization by sponsoring them to attend the federation’s annual congress, where they will meet the world’s top agricultural journalists.
The winners were nominated by their respective guilds and chosen by an international selection committee comprising Owen Roberts of Canada (chair), Hans Siemes of The Netherlands and Dana Vecerova of the Czech Republic .
IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by:
I’m back online here in Sendai, Japan on Thursday morning. It’s a beautiful day here. Cindy and I elected not to tour today. We were so exhausted by the time we got in last night that we needed some time to relax. Most of our IFAJ group is out on one of 4 different tours. They’re going overnight and won’t be back until late tomorrow night. We just couldn’t do it since we need internet access and time to work and none of that is taken into consideration in the schedule.
Besides posting here on AgWired we’re working on posts for about 4 other websites like Domestic Fuel, World Dairy Diary, Corn Commentary and Precision Pays.
The rice plants you see pictured are from our last stop yesterday at a research facility. I’ll have more on that in a later post. Thanks to Kurt Lawton for the hand. The photo album is up to date now so feel free to browse.
IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by:
Making new compounds for crop protection is no overnight process and we got to learn a little bit about how it is done during our visit to the BASF research facility in Limburgerhof, Germany last week.
Our first stop at the research facility was prescreening, where Dr. Franz Rohl explained some of the steps they take in looking at the potential for various compounds.
“The laboratory is the first place to test unknown chemicals for biological activity to find out if they have herbicide, fungicide or insecticidal activity that is of interest for our chemists,” said Rohl.
But Rohl says only one out of 140,000 of the compounds they test end up going on to the farm fields.
Listen my interview with Dr. Rohl here:
basf-rohl.mp3
View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels
According to the President and CEO of BASF Plant Science Dr. Hans Kast, the future is in the genes for agriculture. Kast gave ag journalists an overview of that future in Germany last week.
“Plant biotechnology will play a crucial role in ensuring that the rapidly growing population continues to have a sufficient supply of high quality food,” said Kast.
BASF Plant Science’s research activities focus on solutions for effective agriculture, healthier nutrition and plants for use as renewable resources. BASF Plant Science is an international Research and Technology “Verbund” with eight sites in Europe and North America.
