News

Ancient mesopotamian discovery transforms knowledge of early farming

Millet is a hearty, fast-growing, low-water requiring and nutritious gluten-free grain that could hold a lot of potential for increasing the resilience capacities of our semi-arid food systems. Today's agricultural innovators should consider investing in more diverse and resilient food systems, just as people did in ancient Mesopotamia.

1010 KSIR Farm Radio interview with Dr. James Schnable

DLG co-founder, James Schnable speaks with Lorrie Boyer of KSIR (Fort Morgan, CO) about Proso Millet

New proso millet varieties significantly boost yields on non-irrigated acres, even with no fertilizer use

Proso millet, a crop that makes more grain from less water than any other, has been neglected by the seed industry for many years. But that is starting to change. In the summer of 2021 farmers across the state of Colorado had the chance to try seed of two new varieties of proso millet -- DLG 40 and DLG 240 -- developed by Dryland Genetics, a plant breeding start-up founded by scientists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Iowa State University.

The DLG 240 looked like it would yield a bit more all season, when we harvested it we were pleased with the yields. It was 33% higher yielding than our regular millet. It was also more consistent throughout the field and later maturing and that gave it the chance to add more yield, said Kent Kalcevic, a farmer near Benett, Colo. who tried out the new DLG 240 variety of proso millet.

Elevators are paying high prices for proso millet this year: between $8-10/bushel, higher than corn and roughly matching the current price of wheat. Different customers reported a whole range of yields, said Craig Anderson, Dryland Genetics' COO, but we have consistently seen increases of 20% or more per acre, delivering an additional $48 to $60 net profit per acre.

Dryland Genetics continues expansion; Hires John Manuel as Chief Commercial Officer

Dryland Genetics continues their expansion, appointing John Manuel as their new Chief Commercial Officer. Dryland Genetics is increasing the sustainability and resilience of the global food supply through their high-yielding proso millet varieties which can produce twice as much grain per gallon of water as dryland corn.

Manuel brings more than 16 years of experience in the food ingredient business to the growing company. He has a track record with major food and agriculture companies in commodities trading, supply chain management and strategy and business development.

When I first visited the facility in Ames, and saw what Dryland was doing, I was sold. Dryland Genetics has significantly increased the yield on one of the most water-efficient crops in the world. I truly believe we can change the landscape of sustainable agriculture, said Manuel who most recently served as the Senior Director of Strategy and Business Development for Miller Milling. Prior to that he worked at General Mills and James B. Joiner Company.

Dryland Genetics names Craig Anderson as Chief Operating Officer to scale proso seed production and sales

Dryland Genetics, a plant breeding company ensuring a resilient food supply by developing and commercializing crops that make more grain from less water, announced that it has named an industry veteran to the position of Chief Operating Officer.

Craig Anderson, who previously served as the brand manager at LG Seeds and the COO of AgReliant Genetics, will oversee production, sales, and supply chain management at Dryland Genetics. As a member of the company's leadership team, Anderson will report to Dryland Genetics Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Patrick Schnable.

Craig brings a wealth of knowledge from his experience managing production and supply chain for one of the fastest growing seed companies in North America, Schnable says. He brings a valuable perspective and the expertise to rapidly grow our capacity to produce proso millet seed and get that seed into the hands of our customers.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and the Mexican Agriculture and Rural Development minister, Víctor Manuel Villalobos Arámbula (left) examining proso millet seeds after being briefed about Dryland Genetics (10/20/2021) (photo credit: Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University, used with permission)

Proso millet continues to define its niche on the Plains

Out here on the wide-open prairie at Towner, Colorado, drought-suffering farmer Chris Stum has carved out a unique market.

Stum and his family were tired of fighting the lack of rainfall and the dried-up wheat crop year after year. But one thing that seemed to always produce–no matter how little moisture fell from the sky-was proso millet.

It wasn’t a zero, said Stum, who sat atop his combine seat on Labor Day–trying to find a dry patch of millet to harvest. We found that we could get something out of it.

In an age of climate change, proso millet is a grain that can endure the scorching summer heat and drought. That's why Stum went from planting mostly wheat and corn to putting over half of his acres to millet and finding markets to sell it.

Dryland Genetics Raises $3.8M in latest fundraising round. VC and established seed company investors back company creating new high yielding varieties of an ancient water-efficient crop.

Dryland Genetics today announced it raised $3.8 million in venture financing as part of a round led by Next Level Ventures, of Des Moines and Stine Seed Farm, of Adel, with additional investment coming from the company’s existing investors. Dryland Genetics has dramatically increased the yield of proso. Proso is a water use efficient grain grown in the high plains from Texas to Canada, with approximately a half million acres under production in Colorado, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The company plans to use the funding to expand its seed sales and marketing staff, including the recruitment of a Chief Commercial Officer.

The new proso millet genome was published in Nature Communications!. Three members of Dryland Genetics Santosh Rajput, Patrick Schnable, and James Schnable, as well as Delin Li from our sister company Data2Bio all contributed to making the dream of a proso millet genome a reality.

One of our founders (Patrick Schnable) was interviewed in the High Plains journal about Dryland Genetics and our mission.

We were proud to be one of the sponsors of the 3rd annual broomcorn (proso) millet conference held this summer in Ft. Collin’s, CO. It was also fascinating conference, especially getting to hear from all the innovative companies working on new ways to incorporate more proso millet into food products at the same time we’re working to grow more proso millet.