Triple-Crop Sugar Corn Yields Sugar, Grain, and Biomass with Less Nitrogen

Midwest Ag Net
March 16, 2009 09:23 AM CDT

URBANA - By crossing maize plants adapted to the tropics with lines used as parents of popular Midwestern corn hybrids, researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a new type of plant with the potential to yield three crops and use less nitrogen. Sugar corn can be harvested for the grain, the sugar inside the stalk, and for biomass to produce energy.

Crop scientist Fred Below and plant geneticist Stephen Moose wanted to develop a corn plant that would produce competitive amounts of biomass while using less nitrogen.

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