EDITOR'S NOTE: Row-crop farmers make dozens of decisions that affect the crops they grow, but perhaps none is more important than the seed they select. In a special series called Savvy Seed Decisions, DTN/Progressive Farmer examined often unseen facets of the seed industry that affect what farmers put in their planters.
Hybrid seed corn doesn't happen by accident. Painstaking attention to detail is required to ensure that products yield as advertised. In the first story in our series, Wyffels Hybrids, a family-owned Illinois seed company founded in 1946, offered DTN/Progressive Farmer a behind-the-scenes look into what it takes to deliver seed corn to the farmgate.
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ATKINSON, Ill. (DTN) -- For Corn Belt kids a generation ago, certain summer jobs abounded. There were hay crews requiring strong backs to buck bales headed for the hayloft. There were platoons armed with sharpened steel that swarmed soybean fields roguing out offending weeds. And there were teams that ventured into company cornfields, tearing out tassels so pollination could be perfected.
These tasks continue today, albeit in a different fashion. Small hay squares still get stacked, but big bales are more common. The Roundup revolution let most hang up their hoes, at least for a while, as biotechnology and chemistry combined. Machines replaced a lot of detasseling teenagers. But that's not the only hybrid how-to that's evolved for seed corn companies.
"The last few years at the home farm, before they built this facility, my dad and uncle would bag seed corn into burlap sacks sewed up by hand," said Jacob Wyffels, vice president of production for Wyffels Hybrids, headquartered in Geneseo, Illinois. "They could do 60 bags in a good day. Now, we can do 60 bags in about 2 1/2 minutes."
Each season, Wyffels Hybrids raises seed corn on roughly 15,000 acres across northern and central Illinois, producing a portfolio of nearly 90 individual corn hybrids. When that seed is harvested, it's brought to the company's production facility in nearby Atkinson.
"Our research team selects these hybrids with all this yield potential, and it's our job here in production to bring that seed to life," Wyffels said. "All the processes that we put in place are designed to protect that potential. How we handle it through each step affects that seed quality. You don't ever gain quality, but you can lose it."
FIELD FACTORS
Hybrid seed is produced by crossing two pure genetic lines of corn. These "parent" lines, one male and one female, each play a specific role. The male parent supplies the pollen, while the female parent grows the seed that will be harvested.
Like other seed companies, Wyffels lays out its fields with a 4-to-1 ratio, alternating four rows of female plants to one row of male plants across the entire field. The first quality pass occurs while the plants are still in vegetative growth stages.
"We'll send crews into the field looking to rogue out 'off types,'" Wyffels explained. "These are plants that look a lot taller than the parent plants we're going to cross. We want to remove them so that we don't have any pollen contamination."
Next, the female plants are detasseled, leaving the male plants as the only pollen contributors in the field. Wyffels uses cutting and pulling machines to remove most female tassels; however, humans still conduct the final quality checks.
After pollination takes place, the male plants are removed. The female plants continue growing until the corn reaches maturity. The hybrid seed, which averages 70 to 75 bushels per acre, is harvested on the cob with the husk intact.
"At this point, it's still at about 33% to 35% kernel moisture. Harvesting at that higher moisture and on the cob guards against loss and protects the quality," Wyffels said. "We need to have the whole crop harvested before Oct. 10, our first frost date. If you get frost on seed, that will affect germination."
Of course, not all of Wyffels' contracted acres can be harvested and processed at the same time. So, the company has adopted a wide planting window.
"Planting usually starts the last week of April, and we'll go through the first 10 days of June," Wyffels said. "We'll spread things out with geographic diversification, planting dates and different maturities. That way, if there's a real hot week in July, everything's not trying to pollinate during that time, which could be detrimental to our yields. It gives us flexibility for harvest and processing."
ACTION IN ATKINSON
Once harvest is underway, the processing facility runs nearly nonstop. Semitrailer loads of harvested ears are unloaded onto vibratory pans, feeding conveyors that bring the seed into the husk and sort building.
"We have two independent systems, so we can process two different hybrids at the same time," Wyffels said. "The ear corn comes into the building and is conveyed into machines with long rolls that turn toward each other, tearing the husks off the ear. The ears pass an electronic eye, and if husks remain on an ear, it's rerouted back through again."
The ears are then visually inspected by the sorting crew, which removes anything with undesirable characteristics. This includes the presence of mold and "off-type" ears that resemble larger commercial ears.
From sorting, the ears of seed corn are moved over to drying. "We want to take that moisture down to 12.5%, but we want to do so in a slow manner," Wyffels explained. "If you dry too fast, you can crack the seed. If you dry too slow, there can be mold. We target a quarter to a third of a point of moisture an hour, which is about 72 hours total."
The dryer is equipped with an inclined perforated steel floor. A conveyor moves back and forth like the carriage of a typewriter to evenly distribute the ears of corn inside and ensure uniform air flow. Once the dryer is full, 95-degree Fahrenheit air is blown up through the bottom of the bin for the first 36 hours, then the flow is reversed, and 105 F air blows down from the top until the corn reaches optimal moisture.
"Drying is probably the most influential process on the quality of seed outside of what happens in the field," Wyffels continues. "There's a team of people managing the dryers 24 hours a day, testing the seed throughout the process."
After the corn is dried, it's moved to shelling, where a large cage-type sheller, similar to that found in a combine, separates the kernels from the cob. The seed then goes through an initial cleaner and a batch scale.
"That becomes our instant inventory," Wyffels said. "From there, it goes into bulk storage in a 2,000-, 4,000- or 6,000-bushel bin until it's ready for conditioning."
The conditioning process includes further cleaning of the seed, which involves a set of screens, a density table and a pass through a high-speed color sorter to remove anything undesirable. Seed is also sized to ensure it's consistent and uniform for planting.
During conditioning, a composite sample is pulled from the seed lot for quality testing. This includes cold- and warm-stress germination and vigor testing, as well as tests for the presence of specific traits or the lack thereof, if the seed is not genetically modified.
"After its initial testing, the seed will continue to receive germination testing quarterly," Wyffels added.
The final steps include application of seed treatments and packaging. In addition to offering bagged seed, Wyffels packages its hybrids in 30-, 40- and 50-unit bulk seed boxes.
"Quality has been a hallmark of [our] brand for a long time," Wyffels said. "We're not focused on just passing our specs. We try to do everything just a little bit better. Every additional seed that germinates and gets out of the ground turns into more yield for our customers."
WYFFELS EXPANDS INTO IOWA WITH NEW FACILITY
After years of planning and 15 months of construction, Wyffels Hybrids officially expanded its operational footprint this summer with the opening of a new warehouse and distribution center near Ames, Iowa.
"Today marks a tremendous milestone in our ongoing 78-year journey as a third-generation family-owned and led business," proclaimed company president John Wyffels during a July 10 ribbon-cutting ceremony. "For 11 consecutive years, corn growers are planting more acres to Wyffels. This is evidence that our purpose of serving the American family farmer is both important and increasing in urgency."
The new facility, located on approximately 150 acres in the Prairie View Industrial Center, near Interstate 35 and Highway 30 east of Ames, brings seed closer to Wyffels' growing customer base in Iowa, southern Minnesota and southern South Dakota. The first outbound shipments from the new warehouse are slated for December 2024.
In addition to storage and distribution capabilities, the site includes research and agronomy test sites that are available to Wyffels' sales team members, seed representatives and customers for tours and agronomy days. With continued growth, future expansions include seed corn production capabilities, enhanced research and corn-breeding functions, as well as meeting and training resources.
"This site is another example of our firm commitment to the seed business for another generation," Wyffels explained. "Our growth is a testament to the commitment our team has for selecting, testing, producing and delivering the best-performing hybrids for the central Corn Belt. Our products and passionate people are the reason more farmers are choosing to plant their independence with Wyffels."
Jason Jenkins can be reached at jason.jenkins@dtn.com
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