AgTech: Seed Coating by Landec for Improvement in Crop Cycle of Corn, Soybean and Wheat

Seed enhancement coatings improve the germination of crops such as corn and soybeans, protecting the seeds from adverse field conditions and environmental stress. Seed enhancements are used to promote good germination and improved seedling vigor resulting in a healthier crop and thus enhanced yield potential of high-value seeds.

IntelliCoat Pollinator Plus is used by seed companies to delay germination and enhance an optimal natural crossing of genes in the production of hybrid seeds. Pollinator Plus is widely used in hybrid corn seed production, with use in over a half million acres since 2000. Pollinator Plus works by delaying the germination of male inbred seeds to expand the pollen shed window. Seed producers benefit by eliminating the need for split plantings and flaming operations. Use of Pollinator Plus results in higher efficiency, safer operations, improved seed purity, and overall enhanced yield. In 2012 Landec licensed the global rights to Pollinator Plus to INCOTEC.

Early Plant Corn enables farmers to plant corn up to four weeks earlier than normal in the planting cycle. The seed coating controls permeability, using the temperature triggered properties of Interlinear Polymers. Below a pre-set temperature the coating restricts permeation of water protecting the seed from cold wet soils. When the soil warms up above the pre-set temperature the seed absorbs water rapidly and germinates under ideal conditions resulting in good stand establishment.

Relay Crop Soybean coating allows farmers to harvest two crops in one field. Coated soybean seeds are planted in early spring into fall planted spring wheat. The coating delays the germination of soybeans by 20-30 days after planting, soybeans utilize available moisture and to establish a stand prior to wheat harvest. The delayed emergence of soybeans allows farmers to harvest their winter wheat crop first while the soybeans plants are small, still less than ten inches, thus not impacting the soybean development. Farmers improve overall field yield and efficiency by harvesting two crops from one field. This method is superior to traditional double cropping where stand establishment of soybeans depend on available soil moisture at the time of planting.

Source: Landec

Bayer Seed Coating

Bayer SeedGrowth™ Coatings can point to decades of leading-edge experience and outstanding expertise in seed-applied technologies film coatings, fluency powders, drying powders, pelleting processes, and the like. With a dedicated facility and team based at Méréville, France, Bayer SeedGrowth Coatings is much more than a mere production unit.

Our full-blown R&D team develops new and innovative seed-applied technologies and tackles the challenges of germination, sowability, flowability and dust control both in the lab and on the field. Agronomic evaluations are carried out to test flowability, sowability and field emergence, and when all the tests have been completed, the in-house Heubach dust meter is used to analyze dust emissions.

What's more, since all the seed-applied technologies are manufactured to the highest possible standards at Méréville, growers all over the world can be sure of uniformly high quality from Bayer.

Source : Bayer SeedGrowth