News
From the world of KWS
The Pinkler estate
Steeped in history
The Pinkler estate is, alongside the Rabbethge Farm in Einbeck and the Rotenkirchen estate, one of the farms Oscar Rabbethge (who was a member of KWS’ Executive Board from 1910 to 1951 and Chairman of its Supervisory Board from 1951 to 1965) ran beginning before the war. These farms were therefore a key reason why Einbeck was chosen as a refuge for KWS when the company had to flee from Klein Wanzleben.
There has been continuous cooperation since then. Carl-Otto Rabbethge, Oscar Rabbethge’s grandson, provided KWS with large areas for its breeding work year after year, for instance. After 33 years, he gave up his farm on June 30, 2021. KWS was able to acquire it and take over the extensive lease agreements.
The photo shows Carl-Otto Rabbethge (left) with Felix Büchting on the day of the handover. The Pinkler estate thus remains in the family, as it were – and that means KWS retains the breeding areas it needs in the Ilmetal valley. |
Before
After
Seed treatment deters the cabbage stem flea beetle
The cabbage stem flea beetle is regarded as one of the main pests in rapeseed cultivation – and it is spreading. In order to find solutions, we need an accurate understanding of this insect. That also entails observing its behavior. As part of an internal trial we therefore filmed how the cabbage stem flea beetle reacts to various seed treatments. “We found that the beetle seems to differentiate between treated and untreated controls,” says Mario Schumann, who accompanied the trial with his colleague Claudia Nordmann. They bred the beetles. Further research is required to explore their behavior in more depth. |
Contact:
Mario Schumann
mario-matthias.schumann@kws.com
Markus von Kameke
José Manuel Bustos
Cereals: Change in BU management
Markus von Kameke took over as Head of the Business Unit (BU) Cereals effective July 1, 2021. The agricultural economist previously worked at various units in KWS’ Corn BUs and was Managing Director of Agromais GmbH. Markus von Kameke will be in charge of the Business Unit Cereals together with Jürgen Leitzke.
Back in February 2021, Kameke’s predecessor José Manuel Bustos moved from the BU Cereals to the BU Sugarbeet, which he has since managed together with Jörg Philipps. |
Learning in the lab
To give children and youngsters hands-on experience of plant research – that is the objective of the “Green Lab” at Gatersleben, a research location with a long and rich tradition. KWS has backed the Laboratory Support Association since it was founded 15 years ago. “We believe we have a responsibility to convey how much fun green vocations are to school students from an early age,” says Viktor Korzun, Global Lead Scientific Affairs at KWS. And that mission has been crowned with success: Former participants have won Germany’s contest for young scientists “Jugend forscht” or are now working at Gatersleben – and might also join KWS. That is why Viktor Korzun emphasizes the potential for closer collaboration. |
Contact:
Viktor Korzun
viktor.korzun@kws.com
New Sub Business Unit Sunflower
Sunflower is of strategic importance for KWS. It’s predominantly a European crop, with more than 20 million hectares in this area and significant presence in our customers’ crop rotation.
Furthermore, the sunflower’s root system provides a great ability to cope with drought situations, making it a crop of increasing importance in the future.
KWS' sunflower breeding program was established in 2011. It’s a relatively new crop in our portfolio, with the first proprietary products having just been launched.
The biggest markets for this crop are Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Having sunflower and corn sales activities fully integrated gives KWS the opportunity to leverage synergies in the customer base and increase KWS´ profile as a sunflower breeder. Despite tough competition in the sunflower seed market, we are aiming to achieve significant profitable growth in the next ten years.
To achieve our ambitions, effective July 1, 2021, the Sub Business Unit Sunflower was established under the roof of the Business Unit Corn and Oilseeds Europe/Asia. Dmytro Sharapov will lead this new SBU. |
Contact:
Dmytro Sharapov
dmytro.sharapov@kws.com
KWS goes ear-catching
Podcasts are growing in popularity from year to year: Around one-third of all Germans listens to them occasionally. That is why KWS is also trying out this new channel and offering two exciting formats: “World of Farming” and “Ährenwort.” They are currently available in German and you can subscribe to them from all common streaming services such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer and Google Podcasts. All non-German speaking followers can listen to the episode on our KWS Youtube channel and use the subtitle function.
If you like the podcasts, you can subscribe to them and are also welcome to share them on social media.
KWS Cereals now has something to make you pin back your ears: In July it launched the “Ährenwort” podcast, an exciting audio format with many interesting talks on the subject of cereals. They include contributions like “From the start to harvesting – how are cereals bred?”, “Rye ’n’ Roll – super food and super star” or “Farms are thrilling – and more than just cattle and fields.” A new episode with exciting discussions and interesting guests comes out on the 15th of every month. So tune in – it’s worth it! In this spirit: You’ll be hearing from us. |
Contact:
Matthias Stahlmann
matthias.stahlmann@kws.com
In the “World of Farming” podcast, KWS colleagues look at diverse topics with guests from science, politics and the agricultural industry. The series kicked off in July with “Crossing, selection, phenotyping – how are plants bred today?” with Léon Broers (the board member in charge of R&D and the Business Unit Vegetables) and Jürgen Schweden (Global Head of Research & Services), while the second episode asked “The European Green Deal – utopia or model of the future?” and the third was entitled “Genome editing – dinner from the test tube?”. New episodes are always published at the start of the month. |
Contact:
Sina Barnkothe
sina.barnkothe@kws.com
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