Do You Know Your Audience When Breeding?

BY: Alex Martin

When you hear the term “audience,” your mind probably jumps to marketing. Who am I selling a product to? Who’s the person I have in my mind’s eye that I want to let know about the product?

Audience isn’t just someone a marketer or salesperson has to keep in mind anymore. In today’s world, even our STEM researchers, like plant breeders, need to keep their specific audience top-of-mind to better breed and create the perfect variety for growers globally. But, in some lines of work, you might even have multiple audiences. Are you keeping them in mind?

On Wednesday, March 22, Seed Speaks has two panelists joining to talk about the importance of keeping your audience in mind while breeding:

Irwin Goldman, professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Goldman has been a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1992, where his position is in cross pollinated vegetable crops breeding and genetics. His program includes carrot, onion, and table beet. Goldman work closely with undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, and is actively involved in preparing them for careers in plant breeding. Their work involves field and greenhouse operations since our crops are biennials, and we spend a lot of time working on classical breeding strategies. Goldman teach courses in vegetable crops, plant breeding, plants and wellbeing, and food systems. His training has been at the University of Illinois (BS and Postdoc), North Carolina State University (MS) and University of Wisconsin (PhD).

Lindsay Wyatt, plant breeder at Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Lindsay Wyatt is a squash and pumpkin breeder at Johnny’s Selected Seeds, working towards their mission of helping families, friends, and communities feed one another. Her interest in vegetable breeding stems from her work as a young adult at her family’s retail greenhouse and garden center in Ohio. Lindsay obtained her Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics at Cornell University, studying winter squash fruit quality and Phytophthora capsici resistance in bell pepper. At Johnny’s, Lindsay breeds winter squash, summer squash, and pumpkins that taste great, are adapted to organic conditions, and are easy to grow.

Make sure to tune in at 12:00 CDT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhQMJ-4txhE