DuPont introduces robotics to facilitate testing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A crane transports plants to and from a fully-automated digital imaging system.

"The technology in this new, state-of-the-art research facility will significantly increase the rate at which we bring new and better products to our customers to meet increased demand for grain for food, feed, fuel and materials," said Bill Niebur, DuPont vice president, Crop Genetics Research and Development.

The 12,000 square foot facility expands the capacity of proprietary FAST Corn technology and introduces robotics to facilitate testing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It increases testing throughput eight-fold over the original FAST Corn facility and process.

"Innovation is at the core of our customers' success," Bill said. "This new high throughput approach is exciting news for corn growers. It allows Pioneer research scientists to evaluate advanced plant genetics and critical new traits more quickly in more plants, ultimately delivering new discoveries faster to Pioneer customers."

FAST Corn - Functional Analysis System for Traits - allows researchers to grow corn to maturity in a fraction of the time required for traditional corn. Before FAST Corn, researchers were required to wait for a plant to reach full maturity before studying the affect of new traits. "Testing that historically would take two to three years in a field environment can now be completed in six to nine months," Bill said.