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PowerPollen has secured a commercial license agreement with Bayer designed to help corn seed production growers increase their yields. PowerPollen’s Pollination-on-Demand technology gives farmers greater flexibility by allowing them to optimize the timing of pollinations.
Pollen-collecting machines drive through fields where plants are actively shedding pollen. The tassels in male rows are directed through the machine, pollen is pulled off, then brought back to the company lab for preservation. More than 80 liters of pollen can be collected in one day using this process.
Once the pollen arrives at the lab, it is conditioned with a proprietary additive, then stored. Throughout the process, the pollen is tested to ensure it remains viable for application later.
By accessing the Iowa-based ag tech company’s first scalable pollination technology for corn seed, Bayer will be providing farmers with the prescriptive expertise they need to increase their seeds’ yield and purity.
“Pollen preservation and handling technologies offer new and efficient ways to produce a crop. We are excited to partner with Bayer for commercial use of our technology,” Dr. Todd Krone, co-founder and CEO of PowerPollen says. “Since launching PowerPollen six years ago, we’ve extended our preservation technology to multiple crops and extended the life of corn pollen from a few hours to over one year.”
Since the 1930s, when commercial corn hybrid seed production was first established, growers managed pollination in corn seed production fields through specific female-male inbred planting schemes that are heavily reliant on favorable weather and environmental conditions for successful pollinations. Adverse weather events and other environmental factors post-planting have always presented significant challenges for pollination, often affecting seed production yield, purity and quality.
“PowerPollen’s technology allows us to mitigate risk in the pollination process and explore several production schemes globally,” Shannon Hauf, Senior Vice President and Head of Seed Production Innovation at Bayer Crop Sciences says. “That further enables our company to provide top genetics and technology in the highest quality seeds to our customers.”
PowerPollen’s patented technology includes collection, preservation and application of pollen in seed production fields using custom-designed tools, and pollen preservation and handling methods built to scale for commercial operations.