Syngenta Seeds’ Gary Wietgrefe points out several of the impediments to widespread adoption of HTF corn (Ed Zdrojewski in BioFuels Journal, 2003b). To begin with, starch and ethanol yield vary by geographic region and from year to year, making an optimizing hybrid choice difficult. Further, choosing a hybrid that maximizes ethanol qualities may mean a tradeoff with yield and other potentially valuable qualities, such as protein content and even test weight (because of moisture). Testing equipment pres- ents its own challenges. Not all units are calibrated the same, creating uncertainty. The technology may be less available to farmers than to ethanol plants, and even if it were to become.
