Inside Bayer’s largest seed corn production facility

CONSTANTINE — Amid the beeping forklifts and bright brake lights of semis weighing and unloading grain, Bayer Crop Science operates its largest seed corn production plant in St. Joseph County.

At its heart are roughly 60 Michigan and Indiana growers producing 25,000 female acres.

They call Constantine, a village of 2,076 people, the “Seed Corn Capital of the World.”

That makes the area’s growers essential partners, said Barry Meyer, site lead at the 80-acre Bayer site.

“We've been able to establish very loyal relationships with our growers,” Meyer told Michigan Farm News. “A lot of the growers have been here the entire time I have been here, which is 21 years. A lot of it really pertains to the reliability of the soil types, which is a sandy-loam soil type.”

The area’s sandy soils have allowed Bayer to process more than 24,000 acres of seed corn for farmers to use during the 2025 planting season. Bayer’s national corn brand, DEKALB, accounts for about 72% of the production, and the rest is Channel corn seed.

Every day about 130 trucks move through the 27-year-old site. Each is weighed, inspected, sorted, dried, shelled, stored, cleaned, treated, and packaged before the product is shipped to distribution centers throughout the Midwest and Canada. The seed can be either the 75- to 115-day variety.

“Our biggest (production) areas are the Schoolcraft, Vicksburg, Mendon areas,” said Kirk Gibson, field production specialist for DEKALB.

“We're working with those growers throughout the growing season on what we're seeing out in the fields as far as disease or insect pressure, weather conditions, weather patterns, and whether they need to start up their pivots or what have you to grow that high-quality seed.”

Success at the Constantine plant stems from the company’s use of sensors, iPads, automation, and other data collection tools that help move about 2.5 million units of seed bags and boxes annually.

Center-pivot technology is another reason for the area’s success.

“They have to have irrigation for us to sign a contract,” said Gibson, noting growers are evaluated yearly. “So we look at historical data with certain growers — their yields and how reliable they are at producing that seed for us — to determine if we want to continue growing seed with them.”

According to Gibson, every grower contract is the same. He said DEKALB also contracts with grower crews to harvest the seed corn.

“It’s a competitive contract, so they're competing with their neighbors who are growing the same hybrid,” said Gibson, noting growers are also responsible for their management techniques, including whether to use cover crops.

“So if they want to do better, they manage it for you that way.”

Centreville farmer Larry Walton contract grows 100-plus acres of DEKALB and Foundation-research seed for Bayer. He said weather patterns, pivots, location to the Great Lakes, and soils make the process work.

“We've been in seed production in one form or another for the better part of 40 years,” said Walton, who also serves as District 1 director on the Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB) Board of Directors.

“We can assure our production year in, year out. The growers are also committed. I mean, you're committed not only financially, but to see the big picture when everybody works as a unit.”

MFB Industry Relations Specialist Theresa Sisung said seed corn production is a big economic driver in Southwest Michigan, where there’s history of growing quality seed corn.

“The soil and availability of irrigation are key for the growing region but also the natural buffer that the Great Lakes provides makes it an ideal growing climate,” she said. “Many of these growers have been producing seed corn for years and have a longstanding relationship with the company they grow for.”

Growing forward
It’s September in Michigan, and growers are antsy to finish field work, move product, and avoid delays.

Rain, which Bayer’s Gibson jokes hasn’t happened since July, falls softly on trailers, drizzling the corn moving up sorter belts and sitting in recently dumped piles.

So many sounds.

So many semis.

So many moving parts.

It’s what makes the site whole, Meyer said.

“It's the reliability piece,” he said. “We listen to the concerns from the growers, and a lot of that's filtered back through our field department.

“It’s what makes this a great relationship.”

Learn more in the video above.