As promised, I'm going to share a few highlights from the Pioneer Hi-Bred event I attended last week in Johnston, Iowa, USA.

First off, I have to say Awesome! - that's my best descriptor of the Pioneer Beaver Creek Research Center that our group toured as part of the two-day event. The facility was brand-spanking, new-carpet-smell-new.

I really don't consider myself a lover of all things high-tech, but this place made you wish you'd been a scientist, just to get to play with all the cool machines they had. It was kind of like where high-tech meets high-touch.

On one side of the building they use advanced mechanized and robotic technology to conduct marker discovery and development along with production genotyping. On the other side of the building, the high touch teams (my words, not theirs) carefully work with plant tissue and study monocot transformation in a highly controlled environment.

To demonstrate high touch, our group was shown how to remove the embryo from a corn kernel, and then we all had the opportunity to give it a try. Once again my LASIK eye surgery paid off, and I was able to extract three tiny corn embryos and place them turned "up" in the designated petri dish. It was all really cool and a reminder of what a high-tech world we live in.

OK, I'll stop ooo'ing and ahhh'ing and get back to another key highlight.

Pioneer said their Optimum AQUAmax drought-tolerant hybrids would "go global" in 2012. There were no other details given on which countries would receive drought-tolerant hybrids in 2012, but there might be additional announcements made at Commodity Classic later this week. I'll keep you posted if I hear anything further.

For the US in 2012, Pioneer will offer 25 Optimum AQUAmax hybrids and expects 2.5 to 3 million acres will be planted. Pioneer noted that in nearly 8,000 on-farm trials, Optimum AQUAmax hybrids yielded 7.1 per cent higher in drought conditions and 3.4 per cent higher in favorable weather conditions than competitors.

This week, I'll be at Bayer CropScience's Ag Issues Forum, which has a sustainability and weed resistance focus. The Bayer meeting rolls right into the Commodity Classic, which is the annual meeting for the corn, soy, wheat and sorghum commodity associations, held this year in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Watch headline news at TheCropSite.com for live coverage and highlights from each of these events.

Have a great week and please say hello if our paths cross at Commodity Classic!