I’ve always been fascinated by how things work. As a kid, I took apart radios, old telephones, almost anything I could get my hands on — just to see what was inside. That curiosity has stuck with me, but now, instead of radios, I test something even more important: the seed treatments that help farmers get the most out of their crops.
As Bayer’s NA-ANZ Crop Protection Product Lead – Seed Growth, I lead the system development testing for our corn seed treatments. My job is to make sure that when a farmer plants our seed, they’re not just getting high-quality genetics and advanced biotech traits, but also a complete seed treatment system that has been rigorously tested to perform in real-world conditions.
Raising the Bar
When we talk about testing, there are two very different stages. The first is the research and development (R&D) phase: the required testing needed for regulatory approval by organizations like the EPA, USDA, or FDA. Every company in agriculture goes through this — it’s the standard step to prove a product works and is safe to use.
But the second phase, product and system development, is where my team and I dig far deeper than regulations require. . This is where we figure out how our products interact with everything else a farmer uses. If we only tested one product on its own, we’d be missing the bigger picture. Farmers don’t just plant seed—they use seed treatments, fertilizers, crop protection, and different management strategies depending on the season. We need to ensure that everything works together, no matter the conditions. Our level of testing allows us to confirm that no matter where a farmer is growing corn, they’re getting consistent, proven performance.
Data Is Everything
Some companies make production decisions based on data from six locations collected in one year. In contrast, I oversee about 290 trial locations every year across the U.S. and Canada, collecting thousands of data points over multiple years.
That matters because farming isn’t the same year after year. Some years are colder, some are wetter, some have more disease or pest pressure. We test across diverse conditions so that when a farmer plants our seeds, they know exactly what to expect. Our goal — in fact, our products’ proven commitment — is stable, reliable performance over time.
Take our Acceleron N314 nematicide seed treatment, for example. After years of testing, we can confidently say that it delivers an average 4.8 bu/acre yield gain across multiple seasons and locations. That’s not a guess — it’s backed by thousands of data points collected over many years, under all kinds of growing conditions.
In farming, just like in life, the best results come from preparation, precision, and a whole lot of real-world experience. And that’s exactly what we bring to the field — year after year.
