DuPont delivers strong product performance for North American farmers

DuPont announced solid North America harvest results for its Pioneer® brand seed business during the 2012 growing season despite widespread drought and intense heat affecting a large portion of U.S. corn and soybean acres.

"Many growers faced extreme weather conditions this year, and Pioneer® brand products delivered consistent yield performance,” said Paul E. Schickler, president of DuPont Pioneer. “This year’s harvest results are further evidence of our strong legacy of corn and soybean germplasm, and the value of the ‘right product, right acre’ approach to product development and sales.”

"Advancements through plant breeding have increased the durability and productivity of corn and soybeans under extreme stress,” Schickler added. “Solid product performance in 2012 underpins a strong start to the 2013 sales season and anticipated high demand for our products.”

Innovations in corn lead to strong performance under stress

Pioneer® brand corn seed products demonstrated good plant health and performance in tough growing environments in 2012 and continued to perform well against competitor products. Advances in new genetics and strong performance of our triple-stacked hybrids containing in-plant insect protection allowed Pioneer to increase our yield advantage again in 2012.

"As I have walked the fields with customers impacted by this year’s drought, I have heard them say repeatedly that the performance of their corn crop exceeded what they expected based on experience in previous drought years, particularly in the late 1980s,” Schickler said.

The season also showcased Pioneer® brand corn products that have consistent stay-green plus advantages for test weight and grain quality over competitors. More than 80 years of enhanced plant genetics and targeted breeding put growers today in a stronger position than in prior years.

In 2012, Pioneer saw a significant increase in demand for its new generation of Optimum® AQUAmax™ drought-tolerant corn products. On more than 11,000 side-by-side comparisons with competitive products, yield data* shows an advantage of 8.9 percent with Optimum® AQUAmax™ products in water-limited environments; and a 1.9 percent yield advantage in favorable growing environments.

"Growers managing their risk with Optimum® AQUAmax™ products were rewarded in a particularly challenging year,” said Schickler. “The seed delivered a yield advantage under the most difficult drought stress and differentiated our product from the competition.”

These hybrids were developed using DuPont Pioneer proprietary Accelerated Yield Technology (AYT™) system™ to feature native corn traits that help maximize water access and utilization to deliver top-end yield potential under normal growing conditions and improved yield stability under drought stress.

Pioneer soybean products continue to perform

Pioneer® brand soybean products once again deliver results for growers. Strong agronomics and better plant genetics played a key role in a difficult 2012 growing season – giving the crop the ability to recover despite extreme heat early in the growing cycle.

"Pioneer® brand soybeans continue to deliver competitive yield performance, and our customers are satisfied with their results,” said Schickler. “Year after year, Pioneer invests in soybean product research to focus on what matters most to growers – high-yielding products with strong locally relevant disease-resistance packages. Farmers are looking forward to the introduction of our new 2013 varieties.”

Pioneer announced last month it will release 34 new soybean varieties for 2013 planting after these products demonstrated strong performance under tough local disease and agronomically challenging environments. The 2013 class of soybean products will offer farmers more options to combat disease pressure and help provide consistent yield year after year.