SW ONTARIO PIONEER REPS ARE CONDUCTING OVER 160 PRODUCT ADVANCEMENT TRIALS ( PAT TRIALS) IN 2010

Pioneer sales reps are heavily involved in the evaluation process of potential new Pioneer products for the Onatrio farm marketplace.By planting and weighing on farm Pioneer PAT trials Pioneer reps contribute a substantial amount of data that aids in the potential advancement of New corn hybrids and soybean varieties for Ontario farmers.

Every year Pioneer hires an Agronomy Intern to help assist in the planting and data collection that comes from Pioneers extensive on farm PAT trial program.This years Agronomy Intern is Bruce Betzner who hails from Lynden Ontario located close to Hamilton.Bruce is the son of Pioneer sales Rep Joe Betzner.Bruce will help Pioneer sales reps plant and evaluate the performance of potential new Pioneer products in a geography that covers from Grandbend to Hamilton down to Niagara Falls and back along Lake Erie to Detroit.

PAT SEED is organized ahead of planting by clearly numbering each product for its respective turn to be planted.
When Bruce is unable to reach a Pioneer Sales Reps location others in the reps family will often pitch in to help make the planting process go smoothly.In the case above Megan Tyhurst daughter of Tom Tyhurst near Dresden,Ontario can be seen pitching in a hand.
Instead of removing planter boxes between each products fill-up some reps have streamlined their planting process by utilizing a shop vac and a portable generator.This has certainly made the job of planting a lot of PAT hybrids much easier and more time efficient.Brad Gawley can be seen above vacuuming out one of Tom Tyhurst planter units while his daughter Megan can be seen in the background retrieving a sample bag of a new PAT entry for the next planting.
Megan can be seen above pouring seed of a NEW PAT ENTRY in one of the hoppers of her dads planter.
Of course making sure that each plot gets properly recorded and staked is of fundamental importance in the entire plot planting process.The staked hybrid shown in the foreground is a unique new PAT ENTRY in that it is one of the first Pioneer hybrids to ever be evaluated for it dual-mode-of-action for corn borer control.This is a compliance requirement of the CFIA ( Canadian Food Inspection Agency )in order for companies to be able to reduce their percentage of Corn Borer Refugia requirement.X03A139YHR offers 2 modes of action for corn borer protection.