Plant growth regulators help increase nutrient uptake and affect how a plant deals with stress. Sheth explains that when a plant is growing, it’s always facing different types of stress. “To cope with that stress, it’s down regulating these hormones to survive,” he says. “What we’re doing is bring- ing those hormones back into balance for the most efficient uptake of nutrients to produce the desired crop.” Coping with Challenges One of the challenges that comes with applying bio- logicals as a seed treatment is keeping these organisms alive and working long enough for them to do their job when planted. Vive Crop Protection, in collaboration with partners, has been working to develop a protection technology that helps keep them alive from when the seed is treated to when it goes into the ground. This helps farmers get the maximum benefit associated with those biological prod- ucts, says Darren Anderson, president of Vive Crop Protection. As an example, some of those seed treatments are based around nematode control, Anderson says, noting that it is a really important application. “Nitrogen fixation is obvi- ously a big deal, but there’s also a lot of seed treatments based on these biologicals or microbes that are really designed to control early- season diseases and certain insect pests,” he says. Anderson agrees with Clark that the amount of inno- vation going into this space right now is really incredible. However, he says the chal- lenge is the delivery system — being able to keep these organisms alive long enough to do their job. “We are really excited to be able to bring a technology that does that to the table,” Anderson says. The Innovation Process At Syngenta, formulation specialists start the innovation process by screening active ingredients. Lupfer says they look at a number of factors, including viscosity, stability, shelf life and a whole host of other criteria. “We are always in search of ways to reduce the load- ing rate,” he says, noting that seed treatment equipment automation has played a significant role in helping the industry achieve lower and lower loading rates. “Ensuring product stability is critical to ensuring a qual- ity application,” Lupfer says. “We’ve gotten our dosing rates so low that if we applied a product that wasn’t stable, some seed might receive more of an active than other seed. “Regardless of whether we pour a cup of coffee or a gallon bucket, the consistency of the product needs to be there.” Bayer SeedGrowth also has a team of engineers to tackle the highly complex challenge of maximizing seed treatment quality. This involves enhancing seed treat- ment equipment, product formulations and application recipes. “There are a number of key questions we seek to answer in our work,” says Heinz- Friedrich Schnier, who heads the Bayer SeedGrowth Center in Monheim, Germany. “How stable is a product formula- tion? How well does it adhere to the seed? And how good is the flowability of the treated seeds?” He says quality is impacted by seed loading, homogenous seed-to-seed distribution, dust levels and flowability. Stoller’s Sheth agrees: one of the most important factors in supplying consistency of product and treatment appli- cation is stability. “If you don’t have a prod- uct that is going to last you multiple years, then what good is it?” he asks. Sheth says customers are paying good money, and want to have a great return on investment. As manufacturers, Sheth says the companies need to ensure that the product is stable from the time it is packaged to when the farmer plants the seed in the ground. “You can’t have a product that works today and not tomorrow,” Sheth says. “At the end of the day, it all comes back to higher yields and maximizing the potential of the plant. “But we have to under- stand what’s stopping that plant from growing. It’s the stress factors and the envi- ronmental factors. With the ever-changing environment, we need to provide the right tools to help the plant survive through those changes.” Innovation Priorities The No. 1 priority the Syngenta Seedcare team must keep top “At the end of the day, it all comes back to higher yields and maximizing the potential of the plant.” — Ritesh Sheth Christophe Lupfer serves as Syngenta Seedcare application lead for North America. SEPTEMBER 2017 SEEDWORLD.COM / 51