No matter where you farm or which NK® Seeds products or other Syngenta products you plant, chances are good that a team of researchers and developers in Slater, Iowa, have played a key role in ensuring that the seed in your bags is the consistent, quality product that you select for your fields and growing conditions.
NK Seeds gets innovative new varieties to farmers faster than ever because we’re backed by the power of Syngenta — and this gives NK the speed, precision and power to optimize seed testing and development. Have you ever wondered about the testing and quality control measures behind the seed?
“Everything we do through production and supply chain is always with a ‘farmer-first’ mentality,” says Ryan White, Head of North America Seed Production and Supply Chain Operations for Syngenta. “I personally am a farmer, and I try to make sure our teams are always thinking about that. It’s all about quality for our customers — not just today, but also in the future. And we needed to bring all the new technologies into one place.”
This “one place” is the latest Syngenta Seed R&D laboratory in Slater, Iowa. “The vision was to have somewhere where we could do all the current testing, while also building space for what’s coming in 5-10 years so that we’re ahead of, not behind, the curve,” says Bill Tomlinson, Head of Global Seed Production and Supply Operations, who also farms. “I might have had a vision as to what our quality looks like all over the world, but our people here have a lot to be proud of. They made it happen.”
Jana Metzner, North America Quality Lead for Row Crops, works at the Slater facility. She and her team conduct rigorous testing across five general categories: warm germ and physical purity testing as mandated by the Federal Seed Act and performed by all seed companies; trait testing to ensure that every corn and soybean seed has the desired trait in it; genetic purity testing, which is conducted in a genotyping lab but examined by the Slater team to confirm that its genetic fingerprint meets expectations; and vigor testing, which is a proprietary process designed to help with the stratification between high- and low-vigor batches of seed to ensure that Syngenta customers receive only the very best seed that will perform in any condition.
With the opening of the Slater facility in 2020, Syngenta consolidated and streamlined their testing, research and development processes. They’ve replaced a paper scoring system with a digitized process that allows researchers to scan products and upload data straight into the system — and they continue to automate, test and validate. Small innovations like these help to ensure that farmers can be confident they will get a quality, consistent product — today and for years to come.
Learn more about the Syngenta Seed R&D Seed Quality Lab in Slater, Iowa, in this video:
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