Pioneer Hi-Bred moves research lab to Weld County

EVANS — Colorado’s drought conditions have yielded an ironic dose of economic development in Weld County.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., the world’s largest agricultural seed company, has established a research center in Evans to study drought impacts on corn.

The new unit, headed by scientist Bill Curran, was relocated over the winter to Northern Colorado from North Platte, Neb., where it had operated since 1982. Since arriving in Evans, Pioneer Hi-Bred has hired a full-time staff of six researchers and eight part-time employees, with plans for up to 40 more part-timers during the pollination season — from mid-July to mid-August.

“The biggest factor (for the move) was our ability to exploit the lack of rainfall and do drought-stress research on corn,” Curran said. “Colorado’s rainfall patterns were perfect.”

The problem with the Nebraska site was simply too much water.

Pioneer Hi-Bred leased a 4,000-square-foot laboratory and office facility in Evans and acquired 65 acres of cropland near LaSalle for a permanent test plot. In addition, the company monitors smaller plots on numerous local farms under cooperation with growers.

The company’s goal, Curran said, is to “identify products that perform under tough, drought-stressed conditions that will pay dividends back to the farmer.”

Drought resistance in crops is considered the “Holy Grail” of seed research. Approximately 70 percent of the world’s corn acreage is vulnerable to some level of drought stress, said Curran, who has been field researcher for Pioneer in Northern Colorado for10 years.

“Whether you’re in Iowa, Indiana or Colorado, drought occurs every year,” he said. “It has the chance to be greatest as you move West.”

Pioneer, a subsidiary of DuPont Co., claims about 40 percent of the seed market. Its closest competitor is Monsanto at about 20 percent.

Drought resistance was put on the company’s front burner by its recently retired CEO Richard L. McConnell, who ran Pioneer Hi-Bred from 2000 until his retirement in January. McConnell, a native of Sterling, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Colorado State University in agronomy.

CSU will be a factor in the new research center, Curran said.

“We’ve gone into CSU very heavily now,” Curran said of Pioneer’s employee recruiting. “We have three or four kids already hired for this summer.”

Pioneer’s Weld County facility could also grow in the near future. Curran said the company plans to expand its leased space to accommodate even more scientists in the future.

Pioneer Hi-Bred’s research coincides with a growing value of feed corn in Colorado, which was commanding about $3 per bushel at the end of March, up from about $2.30 a year ago, said Loren Martin, a Windsor-based farmer.

Feed corn sales accounted for $286.4 million in revenue in Colorado during 2002, the last year for which sales data is available. That year, Colorado’s farmers harvested 112.3 million bushels from 720,000 acres of corn. In 2003, state growers increased acreage to 940,000 acres and harvested 139.1 million bushels, according to the Colorado Agricultural Statistics Service.

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