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The impact of a forage plant breeder – the story of Herrick Sydney (Syd) Easton (1946 - 2023)

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posted on 2024-07-28, 21:21 authored by John CaradusJohn Caradus, John Hay, Phil Rolston, David HumeDavid Hume, Marty FavilleMarty Faville, Derek Woodfield

Herrick Sydney (Syd) Easton was a forage plant breeder for 46 years. He bred at least 11 forage cultivars, in ryegrass, tall fescue and lucerne that were successfully licensed and commercialised, and he was a key part of the team that developed the successful Epichloë fungal endophyte products ‘Endosafe’, AR1, AR37, and ‘MaxP’ (‘MaxQ’ in USA). Syd’s development of measurement techniques and documentation of genetic variation for potentially valuable novel traits has been detailed in 130 refereed and significant publications, and he was an inventor or co-inventor of 13 patents and/or Plant Variety Rights. Syd made an important contribution in the understanding of endophyte-ryegrass interactions. Through his innovation and leadership, he led the multi-disciplinary AgResearch endophyte research programme, coordinating and writing the first successful funding application that consolidated the team. Coming from a farming family Syd connected with farmers and understood the value of highly supportive farmers and agricultural professionals who were able to critique, understand the value of and use the technologies and knowledge delivered from the science research he was involved with. Like many others in the agricultural research profession, he gained immense satisfaction from seeing technologies resulting from his research being used on New Zealand farms.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Rights granted to the New Zealand Grassland Association through this agreement are non-exclusive. You are free to publish the work(s) elsewhere and no ownership is assumed by the NZGA when storing or curating an electronic version of the work(s). The author(s) will receive no monetary return from the Association for the use of material contained in the manuscript. If I am one of several co-authors, I hereby confirm that I am authorized by my co-authors to grant this Licence as their agent on their behalf. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes the rights to supply the article in electronic and online forms and systems.

Publication date

2023-11-10

Project number

  • Non revenue

Language

  • English

Does this contain Māori information or data?

  • No

Publisher

New Zealand Grassland Association

Journal title

Journal of New Zealand grasslands

ISBN

2463-2872

Volume/issue number

85

Page numbers

7–16

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