NORTHWEST PLANT BREEDING COMPANY
2001 Country Club Road, Pullman, WA, USA.
Cal F. Konzak, Pres./Ceo, Michael A. Davis, Consultant, Manager, David Hooks, Jr. Asst. Mgr., Ming Y. Zheng (Geneticist, Currently at Houghton College), Weiguo Liu, Manager Culture Research Laboratory, Enrique A. Polle, Consultant, Culture Research, and Kristi Geisler, Research Technician.
Northwest Plant Breeding Company (NPB), a private company, now an S Corporation, was started in 1982 by Dr. C. F. Konzak. NPB's own research facilities were constructed in 1996-97 at 2001 Country Club Road, near Pullman, WA. Initially, as now, the company aimed to introduce induced mutations and mutation technologies into plant breeding practices and to develop technologies that would significantly enhance the efficiencies of the various practices in selection and breeding. Initially, the research was on durum wheats and oats, and this has continued with the addition of research on common wheats after 1993. The induction of semidwarf mutations in oats has been continued, and many of the selected mutants are being evaluated for yield and quality. One semidwarf mutant oat will be marketed in Canada by Progressive Seeds, Inc. This mutant has been used in crosses to produce some outstanding recombinants, now entering yield trials. Mutation work in wheat is currently under contract; thus, information is not yet approved for public release.
During the past year, NPB (Konzak, Davis) has invented and applied for a U.S. patent (and foreign patent applications to follow) on a new harvesting machine that we believe will be of importance to plant breeders and pure seed producers over the world. This new machine, a single row/single plant combine harvester is designed to make harvesting of plants and small (row) plots of crops more efficient. The Wintersteiger Co. (Ried, Austria and Salt Lake City, UT) is currently conducting market research to obtain input from breeders and others who might purchase and use the machines. NPB's patent application covers both electric and gasoline-powered models. The machine cuts and threshes material at one time and thus eliminates opportunities for mixing samples. The harvester is carried by one person, with the grain separator/collector attached to a carrier on his back. The grain is dispensed through a chute to a bag provided by a second person. All harvesting can be done directly in the field, avoiding the usual contamination-prone sickle cutting, tying, hauling, and threshing of samples, the only method previously available. NPB has felt the need for such a machine for many years and finally was able to develop and test a prototype in 1998, which proved successful enough to warrant the patent application. Inquiries should be addressed to Wintersteiger, Inc. 217 Wright Brothers Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84116-2840, USA. Tel. 801-355-6550, 1-800 227-7440