S&W Seed Company announced that Dan Gardner has joined S&W as Vice President of Seed Breeding and Genetics. Gardner joins S&W from a leadership position in breeding and international sales at Dairyland Seed Co., a Dow AgroSciences subsidiary, where he served for 18 years. Gardner, a UC Davis educated scientist and seedsman, is well known and respected in the alfalfa seed industry.

Gardner’s most recent position was as International Distribution Manager for the Dairyland Seed Co., a subsidiary of Dow AgroSciences. In that capacity, Gardner was tasked with increasing sales of Dairyland Seed’s non-dormant alfalfa varieties in California, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, South Africa,Mexico, Argentina, and France. At the same time, Gardner was the Alfalfa Breeding Leader and Field Station Leader for a multiple location team of breeders with testing locations in both North and South America. During his years as an alfalfa seed breeder, Gardner was responsible for Dairyland releasing 12 certified non-dormant and semi-dormant varieties plus the first “four” semi-dormant hybrids and the only non-dormant hybrid alfalfa in the world. Gardner graduated from UC Davis in 1989 with a BS degree in Genetics and from the UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy in 2008. Gardner currently serves on the board of the California Seed Association.

S&W anticipates that Gardner will be intimately involved with the design and implementation of the company’s plant breeding activities.