Bayer CropScience, Texas Tech University Opened Seeds Innovation Center in U.S

Bayer CropScience recently opened a Seeds Innovation Center which will house the company’s global cotton business operations as well as laboratories and research facilities. The 100,000-square-foot facility, which includes a 50,000-square-foot greenhouse, is a partnership with Texas Tech University.

 

The opening of the Bayer CropScience Seeds Innovation Center is another significant milestone in the long-term collaboration between Texas Tech and Bayer CropScience. One of the nation’s leading agricultural research companies, Bayer CropScience is dedicated to improving yields, protecting crops from disease and pests and maintaining a healthy environment through innovative solutions.

 

The Bayer CropScience Seeds Innovation Center is dedicated to enhancing and ensuring the growth of the cotton industry through various products and solutions. Lubbock serves as the company’s global cottonseed headquarters. Among the Bayer facilities around Lubbock are a seed processing plant and seed warehouse as well as quality control and research and development laboratories.

 

The center will support research and innovation efforts regarding breeding, trait development and quality, health safety and environmental testing. Research efforts will focus on improving varieties of cotton, cotton variety traits, development of herbicide- and insect-tolerant traits and improved fiber and yield.

 

At capacity, the greenhouse can hold 7,500 full-size soybean plants or 30,000 mid-size cotton plants with precautions taken to minimize cross-contamination of plant pollen or processing errors. The greenhouse also will feature its own irrigation system.

 

“The on-campus location of the Bayer CropScience Seeds Innovation Center will further increase scientific collaboration with Texas Tech and expand potential involvement of Bayer scientists in the Texas Tech academic community,” said Michael Galyean, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. “We expect that the increased research and academic opportunities associated with a Bayer presence on campus will boost recruitment and retention of top-quality faculty members, post-doctoral scientists and graduate students while also attracting visiting scholars from around the globe.”