Mechanical innovation helps seed companies keep up with genetic testing speed [Video]

Seed companies are working on mechanical innovations to keep up with the speed of genetic technology change.

Steady harvest strains grain infrastructure

Ontario grain handlers are struggling under the faster-than-normal progression of soybean harvest into corn harvest. There are no reports of Ontario corn being stockpiled on the ground, but “with the vessel delays that we’ve seen at ports, there’s sometimes nowhere for the corn to go,” said Hensall Co-op grain originator and marketer Berkley Fedorchuk. “We’ll make things work as best we can.”

Millions of data points are created by genome-level analysis. That data is then parsed by computers that often use artificial intelligence. The limit is now the physical world and the race is on to automate information collection in the field.

Why it matters: Changes in pests and the environment require faster development of seed varieties and hybrids.

Syngenta has an engineering and automation research group that works to solve those in-field barriers.

At …