b'GREENHOUSES for the FUTUREBayer looks to the future with greenhouse breeding. Melissa ShipmanIN MARCH,Bayer opened its first automated greenhouse facility in Marana, Ariz., providing 300,000 square feet of indoor growing space as a new global product design center for corn. Matt Lingard, Bayers Marana Product Development Center Lead, says the companys latest and most technically advanced greenhouse facility is a big step forward for Bayer in using controlled environments to develop and accelerate production of new products into the com-panys research and development pipeline. The new greenhouse is not designed to replace Bayers other breeding pro-grams, but rather complement and accelerate those efforts. Bayer believes traditional genomic breeding and field testing is still necessary. We understand farmers face many challenges, and real-world testing ofBayer opened its first fully automated greenhouse in Marana, Ariz., in March 2020.seeds in diverse growing environments with multiple weather scenarios will resultwhich is potting media made from finelyWe recently harvested the first class in better developed products that meetground, sustainably-sourced wood fiber,of material from the greenhouse and the needs of our farmer customers,we are reimagining from beginning to endadvanced it to the next stage, and location, Lingard says.how to reduce our environmental foot- in our breeding pipeline, Lingard says. The Marana facility is focused on sus- print while producing corn products forProtecting our products under glass tainability, seed production and agricul- farmers around the world, Lingard says.enables us to develop the best genetics tural innovation, leveraging the latest inThe Marana greenhouse facility alsoand next generation traits by promoting automation to optimize plant density anduses integrated pest management prac- our innovation in plant breeding, Lingard workflow. tices that leverage biological controls andsays. Central to precision breeding is the Bayer chose Marana because ofbeneficial insects. continued focus on advancing our field Arizonas high light quality and environ- Beneficial insects help us controltesting and high-throughout phenotyp-mental conditions which make it ideal forthe bugs we dont want. These helpfuling capabilities, expanding environmental growing corn undercover all year round.predators eliminate harmful insects, suchinsights, and enabling prescriptive nursery Bringing the breeding process indoorsas aphids, that damage crops inside theand field operations.within the greenhouses controlledgreenhouse. Relying on good insects toAs Bayer looks to the future, Lingard environment eliminates adverse weathereat pests reduces the need for pesticidebelieves connecting genomic and phe-conditions which can cause delays in newuse in our growing facility, Lingard says.nomic data engines in real-time will be an seed development, and additional grow- Bayers focus is bringing the Maranaimportant shift in the precision breeding ing cycles can be achieved each year. site to full functionality, which will con- journey. tinue over the next several months.With these deeper insights on inter-Sustainable Solutions Week-on-week, we are adding moreactions between germplasm and our The facilitys design centers around sus- corn varieties to the greenhouse andother crop technology platforms, it will be tainability. increasing the total number of plants,possible for research and development From composting 100% of our har- Lingard says.to accelerate the development of tai-vest material to using growing mediumThe first round of research has alreadylored solutions for customers around the that consists of peat moss and Hydrafiber,been completed. world, Lingard says.SW46/ SEEDWORLD.COMSEPTEMBER 2020'