Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding

336 CHAPTER 18
Introduction
Jerry Harrington
Industry highlights
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.: bringing seed
value to the grower
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Des Moines, IA 50307, USA
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., is the world’s largest seed company with annual sales of over US$2 billion. With headquarters
in Des Moines, Iowa, Pioneer, a subsidiary of DuPont, sells seed to growers in nearly 70 countries. The company has over
5,000 employees with over 70 seed conditioning plants and 120 plant research centers throughout the world.
Founded in 1926, Pioneer was the first company to develop, produce, and market hybrid seed corn. Before the advent of
hybrid corn, farmers saved grain from one year’s crop to use as seed for the next with annual yields averaging between 20 and 40
bushels per acre. With the new hybrids, yields improved dramatically, and corn was larger, stronger, and better able to stand up
to the elements, resulting today in yields averaging 140 bushels per acre in the USA and commonly 200 bushels per acre throughout
the US Corn Belt.
By combining seed research with programs to show the value of hybrid seed corn to growers, Pioneer Hi-Bred played a
significant role in ushering in the modern age of farming.
The company looks quite a bit different than it did over 75 years ago. Pioneer has expanded beyond corn and now develops
and markets seed for the soybean, sorghum, sunflower, canola, alfalfa, rice, millet, and soft red winter wheat markets. Rapid
advances in biotechnology and genetics have dramatically changed research tools and procedures and the very products offered
to growers.
In this box, I will concentrate only on corn/maize hybrid development, production, and sales.
Research
The Pioneer Research and Product Development (R&D) Department develops hybrids of corn, sorghum, sunflower, and canola,
and varieties of soybean, alfalfa, wheat, and canola for worldwide markets. Hybrids and varieties are developed at primary
research locations and tested at thousands of other locations in order to be sure that products are adapted to a wide range of growing
environments.
Like all successful businesses, Pioneer R&D has specific goals outlined for the marketplace. The goals of the maize research
team are:
1 To develop hybrids with greater than 5% yield performance advantage.
2 To reduce crop losses, grower input costs, and risk through biotechnology that provides insect, disease, and herbicide
resistance within maize.
3 To create more value and new uses for maize by improving the quality of the grain and forage produced.
4 To use available, appropriate technologies that result in improved products for customers.
Customers actually start the hybrid development process. Corn growers, processors, livestock producers, and commodity grain
users, along with sales and marketing staff, identify specific traits they want in a hybrid. Then plant genetic researchers draw upon
the universal gene pool, proprietary germplasm, and genetic technologies to develop new hybrids.
Lab and field researchers work together to develop products, and scientists apply the latest crop production technology all the
way along the product development cycle. While scientists in the lab use technologies to test genes and proteins, scientists in the
field evaluate germplasm combinations in numerous environments. Scientists developing Pioneer products lead the seed industry
in the development and application of genomic tools. This information, gathered through the use of genomic tools, when used in
conjunction with other technologies, helps researchers understand gene functions. This is critical because the information helps
scientists better understand which genes determine important traits, gain valuable knowledge of how the genes work together,
and get insight into genes that control complex traits such as drought resistance and maturity.
Researchers at Pioneer have already discovered some genes that impact important traits such as disease and insect resistance,
drought tolerance, and grain traits, and are searching for more. Genomic tools also allow researchers to look across species for
traits that are important for corn. Scientists use this information, in addition to an extensive library of elite genetics, to develop
better products.
A series of additional tools within maize have included the introduction of transgenic traits that provide resistance to damaging
insects and low-cost herbicides. These can lower production costs, enhance grower efficiency, and increase yields. Before intro-