Dr. John Dudley Hicks, Jr. passes away

Mar 23, 2015

Considered responsible for soybean varieties used by farmers today

It’s never easy when an area of work loses someone who was so influential and important to it.

Many people mourned when Apple CEO Steve Jobs passed away the same way fans of Nirvana's music did when Kurt Cobain passed.

When it comes to farming and agriculture, and specifically in soybean circles, many are mourning the passing of Dr. John Dudley Hicks, Jr. He passed away recently at the age of 79.

He spent 25 years with Pioneer Hi-Bred International where he developed many of the soybean varieties found in farmer’s fields.

“Southern soybean farmers have benefited greatly from Dr. Hicks’ contributions,” said Wendell Stratton, president, Stratton Seed Company, Stuttgart, Arkansas in an interview with Southeast Farm Press. “He was quiet-spoken, but we all listened when he spoke. He was one of the real gems of the early private seed breeding business, and we all had the highest regard for him and his work.”

Website Justia Patents credits Dr. John Dudley Hicks Jr. with six soybean varieties. The earliest, according to the website, came in 1997/98 when he invented variety 97B61. His last one was in 2005/06 when he, along with Mark Jeffrey Hood invented soybean variety XB57T05.

“The products he helped deliver,” Robert Wichmann, who worked with Dr. Hicks as the Corporate Vice President of the North American Seed Division, “helped enhance productivity for thousands of southern soybean growers. His is a remarkable story, and a wonderful legacy for young researchers to follow. He will be missed.”

Join the conversation and tell us if you’ve ever met Dr. Hicks. Did you use any of the soybeans he invented? Did you know it was him who invented them?

Soybeans

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Utilizing a rotational grazing method on our farmstead with our sheep helps to let the pasture/paddocks rest. We also just invested in a chain harrow to allow us to drag the paddocks our sheep just left to break up and spread their manure around, dethatch thicker grass areas, and to rough up bare dirt areas to all for a better seed to soil contact if we overseed that paddock. This was our first time really using the chain harrow besides initially testing it out. We are very impressed with the work it did and how and area that was majority dirt, could be roughed up before reseeding.

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