Bayer's high-tech greenhouse for corn business

Bayer's advanced greenhouse in Marana will focus solely on the development of corn seeds. Photo caption: Bayer Crop Science. (Photo: Bayer)

Midwestern states such as Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska lead the nation in corn production, but Arizona's sunlight and temperatures offer ideal greenhouse growing conditions, according to the company. Plants will be grown indoors year-round.

Robots and other high-tech

The $100-million facility in Marana will feature robots doing much of the seeding and re-potting work and automated watering systems that will recycle nearly all water. 

Matt Lingard heads the new Bayer greenhouse in Marana. Photo credit: Christopher Paton. (Photo: Bayer)

Plant pots are moved around on a conveyor system from a growth chamber to the greenhouse, hoisted where necessary by automated cranes. Plant pots periodically rotate on a carousel system to maximize growing conditions and make them more accessible to agronomists.

The facility's sustainability features include composting of harvested plant matter and beneficial insects that include non-stinging wasps that prey on aphids.

"It's one of the largest R&D investments we've made in decades," said Dr. Matt Lingard, site lead for the complex. "This is the first facility like this for us."

The Marana facility has been in development for three years.

120 employees by end of 2020

The greenhouse's employment has grown from 15 people a year ago to roughly 90 today, with plans to increase to about 120 employees by the end of the year.

Proximity to the University of Arizona, which offers numerous agricultural degrees from crop production to agricultural technology, factored into the site-selection process.

The site employs workers that include technicians, maintenance workers, engineers, data scientists and environmental specialists.

Bayer employs more than 100,000 people globally.

Bayer's crop science division, which includes seeds and pesticides, complements the company's more visible operations in pharmaceuticals and health products that include such familiar brands as Alka Seltzer, Aleve, Bayer aspirin and Claritin.

The crop division accounted for more than 40% of Bayer's 2019 global sales of $48 billion.

Bayer invested $100 million in its Marana greenhouse. (Photo: Bayer Crop Science)

Faster development of seed lines

Lingard expects the advanced facility to shave one to two years off the usual 10 to 15 years it takes to develop a new seed line.

After seeds and varieties are developed in Marana, they will be tested in actual field conditions around the country. Eventually, the seeds will be shipped to growers, mainly commercial farmers, around the world.

There are hundreds of thousands of strains of corn, one of the most intensely cultivated crops. The diversity in corn plants is as wide as the genetic differences between humans and chimpanzees, Lingard said.

Source: Azcentral
Photo Credit: Bayer

Source: Azcentral