Monsanto to open $31 million Woodland research facility

Monsanto officials plan to unveil the Woodland research facility's $31 million expansion at its grand opening in August.

Construction began in April 2012 in the new 90,000-square-foot space at 37437 Highway 16, which will be home to Monsanto's seed health and trait development work. Having doubled in size, the facility is the company's flagship location for vegetable seed research in the world.

Monsanto has been at the present Woodland location since acquiring Seminis, a seed research facility, in 2005.

In addition to expanding research capabilities, the Woodland campus' enlargement was spurred on by the rapid growth of five years of steady hiring, pushing scientists and laboratories into portable buildings.

The campus employs around 250 full-time workers, the majority of whom focus on research and development. No immediate hiring is planned now that the expansion is complete, Scaduto said, though there will be space available in the new building to accommodate future growth.

Plant breeding is the heart of Monsanto's vegetable seed and row crop research, ranging from conventional breeding, to the use of cutting-edge molecular science that precisely identifies and locates genetic markers that correspond with desirable characteristics such as disease resistance, according to Monsanto officials.

Monsanto conducts vegetable seed research in 19 countries, with other development activities in more than 30 countries, for a total of 50 research sites.Upward to 30 seed research companies are planted in Yolo County. This concentrated area is fast becoming known as "Seed Central."