Chris Handel Plant Breeder

Cris Handel explains what ARVEGENIX is testing in its 1000 row
Pennycress nursery (near Labadie, Mo).

    

ARVEGENIX UPDATES

1. Aerial Planting Pennycress

2. Planting the Pennycress Nursery

3. Drilling Bulk-Up Lines

4. Single Row Research Planter

Welcome to Arvegenix

Our Mission:
Arvegenix is the industry leader in the development of Field Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) as a significant new crop for the corn-soy growing regions of the world.   Pennycress will grow over winter between the corn-soy rotation thereby providing growers with an additional revenue crop.

Field Pennycress: 
Field Pennycress is a winter annual belonging to the brassica 
(mustard) family.  Pennycress seeds typically contain 36% oil content, roughly twice the level as a soybean.  Pennycress has been examined and researched by the USDA and a number of academics over the years, from around the world.  However, ARVEGENIX is the
first entity to invest in an ambitious breeding and genomics program to domesticate the wild strains of Pennycress into a viable commercial crop. 
The breeding and genomic research underway will generate
commercial lines that emerge consistently, produce high yields, dry down consistently, and contain oil and meal properties following crushing that are ideal for commercial biofuels and animal feed.

Renewable Fuel: 
Pennycress oil has ideal properties for use in biodiesel and aviation fuel.

Animal Feed: 
Pennycress meal has an excellent nutritional profile for ruminant livestock.
 
Environmental and Social benefits: 
Pennycress is not a food crop and will not compete for food crop acres because it grows and matures over winter.  It also provides ecological winter cover crop benefits by protecting the soil from erosion, preventing the loss of nitrogen to the water systems, and helping hold nutrients and residues to improve soil productivity.