An Honest Mistake Made a Global Mission:
How Dryland Genetics Gave New Life to Proso Millet
It all started with a simple mistake. Dr. James Schnable was researching the fundamental biology of dozens of domesticated grain crops in a greenhouse in St. Louis, Mo. Once the experiment was over, though, James forgot to report that the project was concluded and left the plants in the greenhouse. A month later, he returned to find that all the plants but one had withered away.
The proso millet had survived for an entire month without any water or care, and it had matured to bear seed.
The resiliency of this wonder grain piqued James’ interest enough to begin studying everything he could about the crop and its history. He learned that while proso millet originated in China approximately 8,000 B.C., the crop is now grown on hundreds of thousands of acres across the U.S.. However, as the plant was moved over 9,500 miles from China to the High Plains region, some of its genetic diversity was lost.
By the time proso millet arrived in the U.S., thousands of years after it was first domesticated, its performance and yield potential were less than impressive. With no one developing new varieties, and very little government support for research, the genetics available to farmers were decades old. James’ father, Dr. Pat Schnable has an extensive background in corn breeding and understood the opportunities for genetic advancement of crops.
After discussions with James about the potential of proso millet, Pat suggested that they start a company to further advance the modern genetics of this sustainable crop. The idea ignited, and the father-son duo developed a business model to share with potential investors.
Knowing it would take private funding and professional team members to make their idea a success, they made their first pitch in 2014 to agriculture innovator, Roger Underwood. Excited by the potential of proso millet, Underwood readily agreed to lend his support. He also introduced the Schnables to Ames Seed Capital, an investment fund focused on innovative Iowa start-ups. Ames Seed Capital led the initial investment round for Dryland Genetics, and appointed Iowa farmer Jeff Taylor to serve on the company’s board.
Now, it was time to make Dryland Genetics a real business. Knowing they needed someone with experience working with proso millet, James hired Dr. Santosh Rajput as his Director of Breeding. The talented research assistant had formerly worked with Pioneer and recently earned his PhD from the University of Nebraska.
“The first hire plays a huge role in determining the success or failure of any new business or organization,” James said. “We were so lucky to get Santosh. His hard work, motivation, and creativity created a positive culture that has shaped everyone we’ve brought on board since.”
Creating Focused Diversity in Genetics
Relying on their experience in genotyping and genomic prediction for other seed companies, the Schnables knew how to create significant improvement in crop performance and accelerate their breeding program. Genetic diversity was a key ingredient in their recipe for success. But it would take time for that to translate into improved varieties.
Among the first generation of new proso millet that Dryland Genetics tested in the field, many failed to perform in the High Plains region of Nebraska and Colorado. “It was really discouraging. That first summer only 10% of the plants looked like an actual crop,” James expressed.
Comparing the genetics and performance of the plants at each end of the spectrum helped the Dryland Genetics team identify key genes that contributed to proso millet’s agronomic traits. “After a couple years, we ended up with a set of proso millet varieties that would grow well in the U.S. and were matching or exceeding the yields of the varieties farmers were currently using,” James said.
The genetic diversity of the new varieties also enabled Dryland Genetics to continue breeding for improved performance.
Creating the new genetic lines was just the first step in producing seed for market, though. The Dryland Genetics team now had to test which varieties would be the top performers in different parts of the country and grow enough seed to meet customer demand. “By 2020 we had varieties that we were confident would outperform the competition in farmers’ fields,” James shared.
As the team prepared to expand the business, they secured a second round of funding from Next Level Ventures and Stine Seeds, and three new board members, Dr. Duane Harris, Dr. Tom Hoegemeyer and Dan Northrup were recruited to provide deeper expertise on finance, seed sales and business development.
To help hit their goals for producing seed from their new varieties, Dryland Genetics started growing a second crop of proso millet each year in South America, following their harvest in the U.S. The harvest in South America resupplied the next year’s U.S. seed inventory to create a continuous cycle of new breeding stock and inventory for sale to farmers. This process helped Dryland Genetics build their seed inventory in one-half the amount of time as most small seed companies.
“We get four to six generations of seed in a year in our breeding program,” James said. “That’s how we were able to go from nothing but a business model and a pitch deck to having our new proso millet varieties growing on thousands of acres of farmers’ fields in only seven or eight years.”
In 2021, their first year of retail sales, Dryland Genetics proso millet was planted on 1,000-1,500 acres. Two years later, the company estimated their customers planted nearly 50 times that many acres. The growth is a combination of providing top end performance compared to other varieties, along with the help of Dryland Genetics COO and long time seed industry veteran, Craig Anderson, who oversees business development and customer sales.
Currently, Colorado and Nebraska hold the highest density of Dryland Genetics customers, but James said they are quickly growing their presence in South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa. “We have people knocking on our doors from as far away as Washington and Pennsylvania,” he said.
The Excitement Continues
As new markets open up and more farmers experience the enhanced performance of Dryland Genetics varieties, James believes that proso millet will become an important crop across the country. “There’s been a lot of interest using it in animal feed, and ethanol plants are testing proso millet as a low carbon feedstock,” he said.
Iowa farmers are also seeing remarkable results due to their high quality soil. “The folks who drive by our customers’ fields are calling them to ask what it is. There’s a lot of interest in the corn belt about proso millet as a third crop for the corn and soybean rotation,” he said.
Even more exciting for Dryland Genetics are the traits they are breeding for future varieties. James calls them “quality of life” traits that will not only impact field performance, but also benefit harvesting and processing. These benefits will no doubt make proso millet more attractive to farmers, elevators and key supply chain vendors.
In fact, proso millet is the future of sustainable farming in James’ eyes. “I think it’s going to go from a cheap crop that you throw on the ground to a core part of a farmer’s planting rotation that drives profits,” he said.