Leader in Pacific Northwest Potato Breeding Joins Growing Ranks of Medius Users
Today, we are thrilled to announce our partnership with the Potato Breeding Program at Oregon State University (OSU). Under the guidance and leadership of Dr. Vidyasagar Sathuvalli from his operational base at the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, OSU’s potato breeding program is a key contributor to the nation’s potato variety development pipeline. According to 2022 production data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Pacific Northwest (PNW) states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho collectively grew 60 percent (236 million hundredweight) of the total volume of potatoes in the United States and 50 percent ($2.55 million) by value. Therefore, it is critical for new varieties to perform well in the PNW region.
The OSU Potato Breeding Program tests russet, chip, and specialty varieties at several locations throughout the state, including Klamath Falls in southern Oregon, Ontario in eastern Oregon, and Hermiston in the Columbia River Basin. Dr. Sathuvalli and his team will use Medius.Re to manage Preliminary Yield Trial and Statewide Variety Trial data from all three locations. The most promising new varieties developed by the OSU Potato Breeding Program will advance to broader regional trials in the PNW, followed by the greater western U.S. region. Russet and chip varieties demonstrating sustained regional success will ultimately be tested nationally through the National Fry Processors Trial (NFPT, for russets) and the National Chip Processors Trial (NCPT, for chip). Both the NFPT and NCPT are managed by Potatoes USA, who is also a partner of Medius Ag. Potatoes USA variety development data can be found at https://potatoesusa.medius.re/. New potato varieties developed by Dr. Sathuvalli’s program at OSU are commercialized through the Potato Variety Management Institute, a unique regional collaboration between PNW states to share in royalty revenue.
Under this partnership, the OSU potato breeding program joins other public potato breeding programs in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Colorado in the adoption of Medius.Re to fulfill its data management and analytics needs. A regional, USDA-sponsored collaboration between Maine, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio also utilizes Medius for its potato variety development data needs.
Users of https://osupotato.medius.re/ will have access to 695 variety data records dating back to 2020. While much of the data will reflect varieties still early in the development pipeline, both growers and researchers will benefit from the standardized data that can be compared with ease to varieties currently being commercially cultivated. In fact, with the addition of the OSU Potato Breeding Program, Medius.Re now houses a total of 59,304 potato variety data records from public breeding programs around the country. The public data augments thousands of additional private potato variety records also housed on Medius.Re but with restricted access. This substantial volume of data standardized on the same platform is yielding immediate results through increased efficiency in data preparation, collection, and analysis. It also is laying the critical groundwork for future, yet-to-be-determined data applications and opportunities.
Although Medius got its start in potatoes, data for more than a dozen different crops can be found on the platform. If you are interested in seeing how Medius can make your data more useful and powerful, send us a note at info@mediusag.com. Or, simply reach out to us on one of our social media channels or give us a follow. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
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