News Releases and other News Material/Number 01194/0018

by United States Department of Agriculture

Release No. 0018.94
Alicia L. Ford (202) 720-8998
Ron Hall (202) 720-3310

USDA PROTECTS 20 NEW PLANT VARIETIES

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued certificates of protection to developers of 20 new varieties of seed-reproduced plants including alfalfa, barley, corn, tall fescue, lobelia, oat, pea, soybean and wheat.

Kenneth H. Evans, commissioner of the Plant Variety and Protection Office with USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service in Washington, D.C., said developers of the new varieties will have the exclusive right to reproduce, sell, import and export their products in the United States for 18 years. Certificates of protection are granted after a review of the breeders' records and claims that each new variety is novel, uniform and stable.

The following varieties have been issued certificates of protection:

• --the Viking 1 variety of alfalfa, developed by the Northrup King Co., Minneapolis, Minn.;
• --the Duel variety of barley, developed by Busch Agricultural Resources Inc., Fort Collins, Colo.;
• --the LH159 variety of corn, developed by Holden's Foundation Seeds Inc., Williamsburg, Iowa;
• --the PHMKO variety of corn, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., Johnston, Iowa;
• --the Thunderbird variety of tall fescue, developed by Pure-Seed Testing Inc., Hubbard, Ore.;
• --the Midnight Moon variety of lobelia, developed by Sluis & Groot Research, Fort Wayne, Ind.;
• --the Brawn variety of oat, developed by the University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill.;
• --the Magnum II variety of oat, developed by Frederick B. Ledeboer, Aurora, Ore.;
• --the PJ 7625 variety of pea, developed by the Rogers NK Seed Co., Boise, Idaho;
• --the 9221 variety of soybean, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., Johnston, Iowa;
• --the Waco, Ponderosa and Hickory varieties of wheat, developed by AgriPro Biosciences Inc., Shawnee Mission, Kan.;
• --the ATW 270 and Florida 303 varieties of wheat, developed by the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, Gainesville, Fla.;
• --the 814 and Coker 9904 varieties of wheat, developed by the Northrup King Co., Washington, Iowa;
• --the Haven and Discovery varieties of wheat, developed by Goertzen Seed Research, Haven, Kan.; and
• --the Vandal variety of wheat, developed by the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station, Moscow, Idaho.

Certificates of protection are being issued for sale by variety name only as a class of certified seed and to conform to the number of generations specified by the owner for the following: the Duel barley variety; the Brawn oat variety; and the Waco, ATW 270, Florida 303, Discovery, Coker 9904, Ponderosa and Hickory wheat varieties.

AMS administers the plant variety protection program which provides marketing protection to developers of new and distinctive seed-reproduced plants ranging from farm crops to flowers.

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