Development of Commercial Drought Tolerant Maize Hybrids.

Yield stability in water-limited environments will provide greater economic stability for growers in those regions.  The objective of this research was to utilize all available technologies to improve maize yield stability in water-limited environments.   Whole genome predictions were used to optimize utilization of native alleles associated with improved drought tolerance.  In addition, managed stress environments in North and South America, precision phenotyping and environmental characterization techniques, and on-farm field evaluations in the target population of environments (TPE) were utilized to identify, characterize and advance hybrids which yielded 5% more than leading commercial checks in water-limited environments.   Five Optimum®AQUAmax™ hybrid platforms were commercialized in January, 2011.   In 223 locations over 3 years of testing (2008-2010), the BLUP grain yield value for these hybrids was 6.89 Mg ha^-1 vs. 6.56 Mg ha^-1 for the set of leading commercially available Pioneer and competitor checks.  The process and tools used for development of these commercial drought tolerant maize hybrids will be discussed.