Native to the Sonoran desert in Northern Mexico and the Southwestern U.S., the guayule plant grows to an average height of three feet. It is a natural and economic source for a variety of green products for use in medical devices, consumer products, industrial materials, and renewable energy.
Commercial guayule cultivation today is concentrated in the Southwest U.S. with recent expansion by Yulex Corporation to Australia. Additional global expansion is possible in semi-arid regions of Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, South Asia and the Mediterranean.
Guayule matures after two years for harvest. Its subsequent re-growth can be harvested annually producing high quality latex. High agronomic yields have been achieved through selective breeding and enhanced by best practices in guayule cultivation developed by Yulex Corporation.
Since guayule is a perennial, less planting preparation, cultivating and harvesting is required compared to other crops. Also, because the guayule plant produces terpene resins, which are natural pesticides, it is resistant to many pests and less susceptible to diseases.
Once established, guayule requires less water than many other industrial crops, including cotton, while still retaining similar cultivation practices to cotton.
Guayule Breeding Process
Through a natural selective breeding process, Yulex Corporation has developed varieties of superior guayule plants that reach maturity twice as quickly and produce double the latex yield as compared to guayule plants from earlier commercial endeavors. This combination of rapid plant cycles and increased rubber yield per plant has effectively quadrupled product yields on a per acre basis since the 1980's making it a cash crop for farmers. As the owner of the only commercial enterprise that maintains the germplasm for these lines of guayule, Yulex continues to develop technologies that further increase natural rubber and product yield from guayule.
In addition, Yulex biotech enhancements have optimized guayule for maximum latex and product production and for the economic manufacture of medical devices and consumer products from its latex, marketed as Yulex® natural rubber.
In 2008, a new patented commercial guayule harvester that mechanizes the guayule harvesting process and reduces costs will launch providing farmers with energy-efficient technology that quadruples the speed with which fields are harvested. Named the ‘Y-2’, it features a front-mounted cutting deck for better ergonomics and greater maneuverability.
