OSU GHIC’s National Hemp Industry Research Needs Workshop
Oregon State University’s Global Hemp Innovation Center, National Hemp Industry Research Needs Workshop: Hemp Genetics and Breeding Needs– Wendy Mosher Excerpt: "New West Genetics has the longest running U.S hemp breeding program; we create U.S adapted high-yielding certified hemp seed for various markets and our varieties are bred for scaled AG production systems and possess traits that improve ROI for farmers and Processors. You can see on the map where we've focused a lot of our efforts since 2014 our genetics have been developed trialed and sold across 26 States and four countries. The cornerstones of our program really are these two gentlemen highlighted here Dr. Richard Fletcher and Dr John McKay. Dr. Rich Fletcher led Cargill's canola breeding program for the last half of his 18 years with Cargill. Canola is very applicable comparable to hemp because it has a nice lipid profile - hemps is better! He's been able to transfer a lot of knowledge to how we create and move our breeding program forward. Dr John McKay is a professor of plant genetics at Colorado State University. He is very well known for identifying the complex trait of drought. When we say complex trait we mean something that's controlled by multiple genes, and this is very applicable to hemp because cannabinoids are all complex traits. It isn’t simple but that's been very useful kind of thinking for experimental design and stabilization of cannabinoids. More recently in his career, for the last eight years he's been working [...]