Crop Infrastructure makes two key hires to advance its genetics program

Crop Infrastructure Corp (CSE:CROP) (OTCMKTS:CRXPF) announced Wednesday that it has made two strategic hires to head up its genetics lab and ready the company for its 2019 CBD production season.

The new division will be developing high-grade CBG and CBN genetics for the company’s farms. There are more than 80 chemicals in the class of compounds known as cannabinoids found in the marijuana plant. CBG and CBN belong to the spectrum of cannabinoids and are believed to have pain-relieving and inflammation-reducing properties.

Patrick McLoughlin has been appointed as director of the newly created division of Micropropagation and Genetics at Crop. Zachary Lindskoog has bee named as production manager.

BIG PICTURE: CROP Infrastructure looks to capitalize on the “green rush”

McLoughlin graduated with a B.Sc. in plant breeding and genetics from Cornell University in 2016 and obtained his M.Sc. in horticulture from Mississippi State University in 2018.

He has previously worked on projects breeding resistance to downy mildew in impatiens walleriana, popularly known as Busy Lizzie, as well as studied plant-pathogen interactions between New Guinea impatiens and charcoal rot, or macrophomina phaseolina. His main academic pursuits in recent years have been incorporating tissue culture to grow plants and pathogens in-vitro for production, as well as for further study.

McLoughlin also worked as an intern at a breeding company specializing in hops, which is in the same family as cannabis and his knowledge in this developed industry will help bolster Crop’s genetics program.

Lindskoog studied at the College of Agriculture and Life Science at Cornell University. He has a B.Sc. in plant breeding and genetics with cum laude honors. He was the lab production manager for a local tissue culture operation during his undergraduate studies. He has six years of experience with in-vitro protocol development with numerous crops.

In addition to the comprehensive micropropagation laboratory experience, Lindskoog also brings years of in the field breeding experience to the division, which includes controlled pollinations, organoleptic trait scoring, molecular markers, inbred lines, and other modern breeding techniques.

READ: Crop Infrastructure set to make 100,000 infused cannabis cones at its California farm

“These are key hires at Crop’s 49%-owned CBD farm where advanced propagation techniques will bring costs down significantly for the 500,000-pound per year supply agreement and the estimated 3,000,000 pounds of 2019 production, as well as benefit our expansion plans overall,” said Crop CEO Michael Yorke.

Last week, Crop Infrastructure said its 49%-owned subsidiary Elite Ventures had completed a 1,600 square foot genetics, tissue-culturing and micropropagation lab at its Nevada tetrahydrocannabinol farm. The lab will aim to provide 10 million plant starts for the company’s 2,115 acres of CBD farms.

By propagating in the lab, the company will save around $3 million in seed and planting costs for the 2019 season.

Contact Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive 

Story by ProactiveInvestors