Bayer CropScience celebrated the grand opening of its Breeding and Trait Development Station in Pikeville, North Carolina. The $6.3 million state-of-the-art facility is part of Bayer CropScience’s commitment to extend its investment in research and development, in addition to efforts to expand production capacities and seed processing facilities. Situated on more than 150 acres, the facility will identify, test and develop new cotton and soybean varieties for the mid-Atlantic and Southern United States agriculture markets through modern breeding methods.
The Breeding and Trait Development Station at Pikeville is the first of several Bayer CropScience breeding stations throughout North and South America and the first to combine work on two crops. The facility will support the development and testing of Bayer CropScience’s FiberMax and Stoneville cotton varieties and Credenz soybeans for the mid-Atlantic region, using high-performing, smart technology genetics in a wide range of varieties, in order to offer growers a new, more advanced choice to maximize yields and quality. These efforts will also evaluate the quality and yield of cotton and soybeans. Yield improvement for cotton will be the primary focus at the Breeding and Development Station at Pikeville, while Bayer CropScience strives to deliver the improved fiber quality increasingly demanded by cotton merchants globally.
The facility, with eight full-time and five to 10 contractors and seasonal staff, consists of four new buildings on a renovated former Bayer Healthcare site, including a 4,227-square-foot office building, a 13,057-square-foot processing building, a 13,904-square-foot equipment barn and an outdoor pavilion. Previous site buildings were removed to accommodate new construction, and 86 percent of all materials from the demolition were recycled. To add to site sustainability efforts, all lighting is automated LED lights, with seed dryers that run on solar energy.
