August 7, 2009

UNL’s Department of Agronomy and Horticulture is offering four plant breeding mini-courses this year for seed industry personnel, producers and other agribusiness professionals.

Professors P. Stephen Baenziger (left) and Thomas Hoegemeyer

These courses are available via distance delivery, so participants can further their educational and career goals without being in a traditional classroom. Students can participate in live lecture sessions or view archived lectures online. The courses are available for noncredit professional development, CEU credit, and regular academic credit at UNL.

Instructors are Dr. P. Stephen Baenziger, Eugene W. Price Distinguished Professor, and Dr. Thomas Hoegemeyer, Professor of Practice and former CEO of Hoegemeyer Hybrids. 

Registration

The noncredit registration fee for each course is $150 if registering more than a week before class and $200 thereafter. Special package pricing is available for the three mini-courses offered during the fall 2009 semester. For more information or to register, please visit the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture

Distance Education and Life-Long Learning Program Web site

or contact Cathy Dickinson, cdickinson2@unl.edu.

The site features additional courses in their distance education offering.

Courses

• Self-Pollinated Crop Breeding: August 25 – September 24, 2009
  Common breeding methods used to improve self-pollinated crops, such as wheat, rice and barley, and the theoretical basis for self-pollinated crop breeding.

   

• Germplasm and Genes: September 29 – November 3, 2009
  Importance of creating the necessary genetic variation resources for conventional and modern plant breeding programs.

   

• Cross-Pollinated Crop Breeding: November 5 – December 10, 2009
  Standard crop breeding methods and theories associated with population movement of cross-pollinated crops and self-pollinated crops that are forced to cross-pollinate.

   

• Advanced Plant Breeding Topics — Heterosis: March 3 – April 8, 2010
  Genetic hypotheses and quantitative genetic analyses of heterosis, new tools for studying heterosis, prediction of heterosis and hybrid performance, heterotic groups and organization of germplasm, and the mechanisms for making hybrids. 

More Information

For more information on these classes or how to register, contact Cathy Dickinson, UNL Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, (402) 472-1730 or email cdickinson2@unl.edu