Pioneer Conducts Open House At New Holland Research Station
NEW HOLLAND (Lancaster
Co.) —About 65 guests of Pioneer
Hi-Bred International Plant Breed
ing Division attended an open
house Monday morning conducted
at the new research station on New
Holland Road south of New
Holland.
Farmers and agri-industry rep
resentatives viewed the new sta
tion, situated on 60 acres that will
test new Pioneer com hybrids.
The station, which houses a com
pathology laboratory, seed hand
ling room, a conference room, and
storage facilities, measures more
than 10,000 square feet The facili
ty was purchased in September
1992. Construction, at a cost of
$550,000. began in August 1994
and was complete in December
1994.
“We Erst started doing research
in Lancaster county back in
1938,” said Terry Williams,
research project manager, to the
guests after a breakfast held at the
station. “Pioneer has been in Lan
caster County breeding com and
testing com hybrids since that
time.”
Williams said that the station is
one of 33 com breeding stations in
North America. The New Holland
research station will do traditional
plant breeding on whole-plant
basis and will also be conducting
extensive silage research.
“We do a lot of silage research
at this location,’* said Dave Whi
taker, assistant project manager at
the station. “Here in the East,
30-40 percent of the com is used
for com silage.”
Whitaker said, “We arc trying
to characterize our hybrids for sil
age digestibility, to determine
which ones are the best and the
most digestible.”
The station will also research
the development of a hybrid com
that will resist ear mold.
Whitaker said that work will be
undertaken to “try to End out why
the molds produce toxins.” Whi
taker said a plant pathologist will
be working on developing those
types of hybrids that resist ear
molds and possibly eliminate the
toxins that the molds produce.
At the station, racks of com seed
are carefully maintained by test,
site, row location, and hybrid type.
Computer records carefully track
the seed placement, germination,
standability, and harvest record.
The station makes use of stan
dard com planting and harvesting
About 65 guests of Pioneer Hl-Bred International viewed the new station, which will
test new Pioneer seed hybrids. Pictured from left, Dick Gosselink, building projects
manager; Terry Williams, research project manager; Dave Whitaker, assistant project
manager; Jean Linn, director of real estate tor Pioneer; Kelly Bechtel, research asso
ciate; and Dale Slaughter, research associate.
equipment with extensive modifi
cations. The four-row planter is
modified so the seed hoppers can
accurately distribute individual
test packets of 25 seeds each.
Seeds are planted in \TA foot
rows. At harvest, a combine is spe
cially modified to harvest indivi
dual test rows and harvest records
on individual rows are
computerized.
At the station, about 20 acres are
under test In all, the station will
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 15, 1995-A3l
collect data on about 30,000 plots
of various hybrids throughout the
region.
At the breakfast, Jean Linn,
director of real estate programs for
Pioneer, thanked all those who
contributed to the founding and
construction of the research
station.
Williams said that someday
Pioneer, which is recognized by
many farmers as a seed company,
will be known as “Pioneer—The
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“There are some really exciting
things happening with biotechnol
ogy, and Pioneer is a part of it. and
we intend to be doing some of that
work at this location,’’ he said.
The next open house is sche
duled on August 29-30 at the sta
tion. For more information, con
tact Terry Williams, (717)
354-6044.
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