Rigorous Quality Testing Behind Every Seed

About 25 miles north of Des Moines, IA, in the heart of America’s Corn Belt, sits a hub of innovation: a new Syngenta “mega complex” for corn breeding. On its campus in Slater, a new quality lab sits next to the company’s R&D and parent seed plant, fostering collaboration that helps bring seed innovations to farmers faster. It’s part of ongoing investments that Syngenta continues to make in the seed industry — an important step to test Syngenta seed products to ensure that each product meets and surpasses rigorous quality scoring to maximize performance where it matters most: in farmers’ fields.

As Syngenta’s North America Quality Lead for Row Crops, Jana Mentzer helped build the team to staff the facility’s green field lab. The group has diverse responsibilities that all share a common goal of confidence in the seed product.

“Customers want consistency in seed size in the bag, so we size it out,” Mentzer explains. “We take the bulk seed and essentially simulate what the production plant will do later in the process to give those first pieces of information to the commercial team for the next selling season.”

—Jana Mentzer, North America Quality Lead for Row Crops

In compliance with the Federal Seed Act, Mentzer’s team, part of the company’s supply chain, also makes sure that the contents of every seed bag are consistent with what’s marked on the tag — a practice required of every seed company. “This way, customers know they are getting a high-quality product in germination and purity,” she says. “But just as importantly, Syngenta takes DNA testing very seriously — think of it like fingerprinting a hybrid or variety to make sure it’s exactly what it should be.”

Testing Rigor for Seed Vigor

While every seed company completes some degree of genetic testing, Mentzer says Syngenta greatly surpasses required testing, both in the number of tests and the number of genetic markers analyzed. She says Syngenta’s vigor tests also set Syngenta’s seed quality apart.

“Farmers are pushing their planting dates earlier and earlier, meaning they’re not always planting at the ideal conditions for corn and soybeans to germinate,” says Mentzer. “We really test vigor in those less-than-ideal conditions, which provides us insight into which seed batches perform best under tough conditions versus which need more ideal conditions, and we do so by testing at more spots in the process than some of our competitors.”

By identifying which genetics perform best in tough conditions, Syngenta Production and Supply can arm seed breeders early in the process — so when they look at multiple lines, they are able to choose the one with better vigor. It’s a small detail that can make a big difference in terms of farmer plant emergence, and, ultimately, profit potential.

Considering that seed breeders are working on thousands of products at any given time, Mentzer’s team has a big job of matching products to their genetic “fingerprints” and tracking their identities throughout the production process. It’s a job she takes pride in, and she says the new Slater facility will facilitate collaboration between the production and supply and the research and development teams. As the facility surpasses its one-year mark, she hopes that others in the supply chain will have the opportunity to see the work being conducted behind the scenes to ensure quality and purity in every bag of Syngenta seed.

“I’d like them to see how these quality tests make us more precise, and how those data points are attached to batches of seed to help us make important decisions as to which batches are developed for customers,” she says. “It’s all about synergies throughout the breeding process, and the Slater facility has made us one unified team.”