Plant breeders spend most of their time in labs and fields, tinkering with crop genetics. When a new variety emerges, it gives the chance to have a little fun.
What do a wrestling coach, a Johnny Cash cover, and a prayer all have in common? They’re the inspiration for the names of crop varieties.
If you are so interested in the names of new varieties that you choose to download the USDA’s Agricultural Variety Naming List, you will be greeted with an inscrutable plain text document that is thousands of lines long, detailing each variety regulated under the Federal Seed Act: Some crop names are a string of incomprehensible letters and numbers, some look like they’ve been teleported straight off of a seed marketer’s whiteboard, but many are named after familiar people, places, and things.
Currently, the crops covered by the registry include grass, forage, and field crop seeds. Why maintain a list? Crop varieties are only allowed a single name, so as not to cause confusion across the industry. It is also a key step in obtaining intellectual property rights through the USDA’s Plant Variety Protection Office. In order for a new variety to be eligible it has to meet a number of criteria, including a three-part standard that shows it is “distinct, uniform, and stable”.
Allan Fritz is a professor of wheat breading and agronomy and the head of the wheat breading program at Kansas State University. He’s had a hand in naming varieties after longtime university employees like Carl Overley and Larry Patton, small Kansas locations like Zenda and Everest, and at least one, KS Providence, after a prayer. That last one followed a field disaster in 2014 during which a field was sprayed with an unintended chemical that killed much of the crop.
“We lost everything that we planted there, which was well over half of the breeding program.”
Typically, Fritz said he’ll make a lighthearted prayer, asking the divine where the best places to plant are. This time, he was far more desperate: “That prayer was more like, ‘Oh, God, please let there be something here.’”
That wheat variety, dire origin aside, has turned out really well for Fritz and his team. While every program does it differently, Kansas State partners with the Kansas Wheat Alliance; naming is a process that begins years before a variety comes to market, with workshopping beginning as soon as it seems commercially viable.
Anyone looking to name a variety, whether they’re university-affiliated or part of a private sector program, can’t name it just anything, though. There is a process to follow, administrated by the Agricultural Marketing Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This ensures not only that there isn’t confusion on American soil, but that there isn’t any cross-border duplication with Canada.
That process includes submitting documentation, and receiving approval, from the department. In a statement, a USDA representative shared how they have constructed that process to align with international regulations.
“There were people who were like, ‘I’m not growing a variety named after Bob Dole.’”
“Typically, plant breeders develop a variety. After coming up with a variety name, plant breeders or company representatives contact our office to ensure that the variety name has not been used by another company of the same kind. Our office lets the company know if there is a conflict or issue with the variety name.”
While Fritz tends to stay away from political figures, one variety was named after Bob Dole, former Republican senator from Kansas and one-time presidential candidate. He said that Dole’s contributions to the state made him a viable choice.
“I would probably not highly recommend naming varieties for political figures, just because they’re inherently polarizing. But Dole had done a lot for agriculture in the state, and he had been retired for a long time, and I think, generally considered a good ambassador for the state, good ambassador for agriculture,” Fritz said. “Although there were still people who were like, ‘I’m not growing a variety named after Bob Dole.’”
The Marketing Aspect
Political polarization aside, naming a variety is as much an exercise in marketing as it is in history making. In some cases, the variety works best in one part of a state versus another, so naming it after an area provides a signifier to farmers that it is going to work in their neck of the woods. Sometimes, naming a variety is about finding a way to signify that a variety is particularly resistant to a prominent disease. A lot of the time it’s about connecting the variety to its origin and giving farmers a recognizable name to latch onto. Whatever the reasoning, those who spoke to Ambrook Research for this story consider it as much an art as a science.
Brett F. Carver, regents professor and Wheat Genetics Chair in Agriculture at Oklahoma State University, for example, named a variety after a musical technique called the double stop. “I named it that way because double stop, you’re playing two strings at a time on a string instrument. In this case, we’re playing two genes at one time to give us herbicide tolerance,” Carver said.
He likes to make sure that any varieties in that line then follow a similar naming convention, in order to draw a connection for producers.
“Once you start with that [name], the progeny of that variety will have to be, I think, named in a similar way.” Recently, Carver announced the name of a variety that descends from Double Stop, choosing a song popularized by Johnny Cash. “I called it orange blossom, because there is hardly any other song that takes advantage of and utilizes double stops more than ‘Orange Blossom Special.’ Farmers knew, automatically, what I was talking about.”
“They’ll talk about ‘My Ruby Lee’ or ‘My Double Stop.‘ They take ownership of that, and they won’t take ownership if it’s a name they just don’t accept.”
In another case, he released two varieties both named after legendary Oklahoma State University coaches.
“We released two varieties at one time, Gallagher and Iba, and those two names are often used together at OSU, so I wanted the farmers to know, okay, these two varieties are related. They’re very similar.”
Carver says that while marketing is secondary to quality of the variety, it really can boost a successful product, he estimates as much as 10%.
“It must yield equal to or better than the competition. Once you satisfy that, checking that box off the name can really be important. And you can hear that when farmers talk about a variety they’re using. The one thing you’ll often hear them [say], if they really like it, They’ll talk about ‘My Ruby Lee’ or ‘My Double Stop.‘ They take ownership of that, and they won’t take ownership if it’s a name they just don’t accept.”
The One that Got Away
When deciding if a variety could or should be named after a person, quality is also at the top of Fritz’s mind, but so is how he can shine a spotlight on those whose roles in the industry are both vital and generally unacknowledged.
“If I name it for a person, I really want it to be an honor … I think having names are something that producers hang on to, and I also really just like that you can honor people through that that maybe have made a big contribution, and maybe they’re kind of in the background, but it’s a way to bring that story out and for people to be able to recognize that there’s a lot of folks in the wheat industry who are doing things that matter, and to recognize that effort.”
“We’re the Oklahoma State Cowboys, and I really wanted to use the name cowboy. And darned if Colorado State didn’t take that name.”
With long-dead historical figures, there’s less pressure to ask permission for a variety to be named after a person if a family connection is unavailable, but Fritz asks permission when a variety is named after a person where a connection can be made. He said he’s never had anyone decline.
“I have always gone to either the person, if they’re still alive, to their family, to ask if it’s okay if we name a variety after them … I think it’s just better to have that permission.”
Even with compiling an ongoing database, like Carver does, there are still names that get away.
“We’re the Oklahoma State Cowboys, and I really wanted to use the name cowboy. And darned if Colorado State didn’t take that name.”
