Bayer CropScience has opened a new breeding and trait development station in eastern North Carolina. This company news release says the $6.3 million state-of-the-art facility will be home to testing and development of new cotton and soybean varieties for the mid-Atlantic and Southern United States.

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, utilizing 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.

“Our Breeding and Trait Development Station at Pikeville will have a significant impact on the way cotton and soybeans are grown and developed throughout this area of the country,” said Brent Styles, site and testing manager for the Breeding and Trait Development Station at Pikeville. “We place a high emphasis on quality management and seed stewardship, in order to ensure our cotton and soybean-related products are the most beneficial to growers.”

The facility consists of four new buildings on a renovated former Bayer Healthcare site, recycling nearly 90 percent of all the materials in the demolition and using automated LED lights and solar-powered seed dryers.