Meet the Board - Scott Haley

Dr. Scott Haley is the project leader of the Wheat Breeding and Genetics Program at Colorado State University. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Dr. Haley never thought agriculture would be his calling.

“Like many things in life, certain things just happen. I made a choice at one point which led to a choice at this point and so on and so forth,” started Dr. Haley, “I grew up as far away from agriculture as you could imagine. I moved across the state to the land-grant university in Pullman, WA, because it was far away from my parents and my brother had been there and said it was a good place to go. I took botany classes in high school and I had a really great teacher, so I enrolled in botany. A year into my program, I thought, ‘What am I going to do with a degree in botany?’ (I never thought I’d be a professor!) I wanted to be in something a bit more applied, so I switched to forestry. I thought I’d be a forest ranger, I’ve always liked hiking and camping, so I thought a degree in forestry was for me. About a year and a half later, I realized that my prospects for finding a permanent job were not good, as I couldn't even land a summer job, so I decided to go back to botany.”

Then, in 1981, his junior year, Dr. Haley found a summer position in the Pea and Lentil Breeding Program at Washington State University (WSU). “I stayed on for two summers, and then all year during my junior year, and got a lot of great experience. About that time, I applied for the Peace Corps. I was a ‘B’ student at that time, I didn't really apply myself very well, and while I thought maybe someday I might go to graduate school is was not ready at that time. I didn’t know what jobs I would get in botany, I wasn't ready for grad school, so the Peace Corps is really the only other option that I saw for myself at that time. That decision changed my life as very few other things have since,” Dr. Haley said.

In 1983, Dr. Haley was sent to Africa to work for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and was assigned a position in cow pea breeding. “I worked on drought stress tolerance and I worked on Striga resistance (Striga is a parasitic weed that affects different crops like maize and sorghum),” said Dr. Haley, “This program had trainees from all over the world: Botswana, Mali, and Zambia, as well as locally from Burkina Faso. I worked with these trainees, and I helped them set up experiments and analyze their data – even though I only had a bachelor’s degree and was way in over my head. During the last year of my Peace Corps service, I decided to go back and get a Ph. D. in plant breeding so I could go back to Africa or Asia and help people in developing countries. I saw the need for plant breeders in working to improve crops in developing countries and thought that seemed like just the thing for me”. 

In the spring of 1986, Dr. Haley got a call from Jim Quick, the Colorado State University (CSU) Wheat Breeder at the time, inviting Dr. Haley to study for his Master's degree at CSU. Dr. Haley received his Master's degree from CSU in 1989, and his Ph. D. from CSU in 1992 working on winter wheat. From there he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Michigan State University (MSU) and stepped into his first faculty position as a winter wheat breeder at South Dakota State University (SDSU) in 1993.

In January of 1999, Dr. Haley was hired as faculty at his alma mater, Colorado State University. “I was looking for a career opportunity to take over a program more central in the winter wheat belt, where I would have more opportunity to impact wheat production than I could have in South Dakota.”

When Dr. Haley began working at CSU, a major insect pest in wheat production was the Russian Wheat Aphid. Continuing the work of his predecessor, another hurdle was thrown into his path, “The wheat industry told me that they wanted better quality varieties,” said Dr. Haley, “They needed better milling and baking properties, so I also spent a lot of time working on those improvements. By 2001, there was a new disease in the Great Plains called Stripe Rust, and we have spent a ton of time and effort on that disease.”

Although the significance of the Russian Wheat Aphid has declined, another insect pest, the Wheat Stem Sawfly, has now become increasingly prominent in wheat production, as the presence of Wheat Stem Sawfly larvae can decrease yields up to 50%. The complications brought on by this insect also affect the soil moisture retention, so subsequent crops planted in a field affected by Wheat Steam Sawfly typically have lower yields as well. Most wheat varieties have hollow stems, and to resist damages by the Wheat Stem Sawfly, Dr. Haley and his team have developed a solid-stem wheat variety that hinders the ability of the larvae to damage wheat in the same way as if they were hollow-stem. The first variety of its kind released in Colorado was released this year under the name "Fortify SF".

 “I think about what I do in terms of helping the farmer,” said Dr. Haley, “the farmers in these rural communities have to stay profitable, for one because we need the food, but if they aren’t profitable then they’ll leave. If we develop wheat that’s resistant to rust, then the farmer doesn’t have to apply a fungicide – because farmers don’t want to put on fungicides! Let’s say fungicide costs $10 dollars an acre, and a farm is 10,000 acres – you think the farmer wants to spend $100,000 dollars? That’s what we do as breeders, we lower the cost of production by enhancing yield and improving insect and disease resistance so the farmer can stay on the land and keep producing food!”

As a board member of the Borlaug Training Foundation, Dr. Haley wishes that he could volunteer more time than he has, and his main draw to the organization is the connection to ‘hunger fighters’ and giving back in the same manner that Dr. Norman E. Borlaug did many years ago. He has spent the majority of his professional life working with students in one way or another, and he feels strongly that giving back to the next generation, whether at CSU or though interactions with BTF through CIMMYT, is where he wants to be and what he wants to do

By Linc Thomas