As Pioneer celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, the company is looking both backward, measuring a century of yield progress, and forward. Looking ahead, Dean Podlich with Pioneer says one technology could revolutionize yield and corn production, almost as much as biotech did in the 1980s.
Gene editing, currently at the same inflection point where biotech traits once stood, is poised to revolutionize corn yields. While still early in development, the genetic engineering technique is poised to push the yield ceiling higher for farmers and influence productivity for decades.
A Century in Two Kernels of Corn
During a look back at 100 years of Pioneer at Commodity Classic this week, Podlich, who leads the digital seeds group within R&D at Corteva Agriscience, held up two types of kernels. One traced back to genetics from Raymond Baker that won the Banner Trophy, which was the state yield contest at the time, in 1927. The other was Pioneer P14-830, the hybrid grown by David Hula when he set a world corn yield record.
The 1927 genetics yielded 60 bu. per acre. The modern hybrid: 623 bu. per acre.
“You’re contrasting 100 years of progress between these two seeds,” Podlich says. “They basically look identical from the outside, but under the hood, these are very different genetics.”
To the naked eye, the two kernels appear to be the same. But when you think about the technology and innovation that helped drive a new world corn record, it’s complex.
“One has gone through 100 years of selection, 100 years of the breeding gauntlet, 100 years of drought selection, 100 years of improved agronomics,” Podlich says. One has some biotech traits to protect that yield. On the outside they look identical. Under the hood, in the DNA, this is what technology looks like from a seed industry standpoint. 60 bushels to 600 bushels through that technology.”
That radically different genetic makeup sets the stage for what Pioneer believes is next.
Gene Editing: The Next Big Yield Builder
Podlich draws a clear distinction between gene editing and the first generation of biotech traits.
“With biotech traits, we were bringing in DNA from another organism that helped protect that yield,” he says. “Gene editing is a native solution. It’s a modern breeding technique.”
Instead of introducing foreign DNA, gene editing works within the plant’s own genome. With tools such as CRISPR, breeders can make precise changes, edits that would have been technically impossible or extraordinarily slow using conventional breeding methods alone.
“By understanding the genome, we can start to bring together different genes in precise ways that we could never do before,” Podlich says. “Previously, genes were sort of scattered across the genome. We’re able to use some of the CRISPR technology to assemble them into a common region.”
He describes the concept as a multi-trait locus, essentially grouping valuable traits into one location in the genome.
“That simplifies the breeding process a lot more because we can stack them together and deliver them through the product,” he says.
Through this process, the company is combining resistance to multiple pathogens in one genetic package. The work is ongoing and early stage, but Podlich believes it represents the kind of step-change that could shape future yield protection.
“We’re very much at the early stages of this,” he says. “Where we are with gene editing today reminds me of where we were in 1980 with biotech. We know it’s going to be impactful. We don’t know exactly how it’s going to be used. But over the coming decades, it’s going to be a key part of how we get to that next level of productivity and protect that productivity moving forward.”
Five Minutes vs. a Full Year
The acceleration of genetic progress isn’t just about editing tools. It’s also about data.
Podlich points to the dramatic shift in sequencing and genotyping capacity over the past 25 years.
“In the late ’90s, we had what was quite a sophisticated molecular marker department,” he says. “But today, we can generate the same amount of genotyping data points every 5 minutes that we created in all of 1999.”
It’s that leap in speed that fundamentally changes breeding.
“It’s incredible how this technology has revolutionized what we can do in breeding and our understanding of the genome,” he says. “Sequencing technology has allowed us to generate so much more sequence data than we used to. And that allows us to really understand the interaction between the genome and the traits that farmers care about. It’s about how to increase yield and protect that yield.”
Data Also at the Root of Yield Gains
For David Bowen, a data lead in the digital seeds group within R&D at Corteva Agriscience, the story of yield advancement is, at its core, a story about data.
“When we look at 60-bushel-per-acre corn 100 years ago and the possibility of 600-bushel corn today, data has absolutely played a role,” Bowen says.
He points back to one of agriculture’s early data champions, and the founder of Pioneer, Henry A. Wallace. Bowen says Wallace was a statistician, agronomist and politician, who understood the power of side-by-side comparisons long before “data-driven” became a buzzword.
Wallace insisted on entering his hybrid corn in yield contests across Iowa, not just for bragging rights, but for proof. By planting hybrids next to farmers’ traditional open-pollinated varieties, he created real-world comparisons that generated measurable results. Some years hybrids won; some years they didn’t. But over time, the data showed a clear trend: the best hybrids consistently outperformed conventional varieties.
“That ability to show value with replicated, side-by-side data was critical,” Bowen says.
A century later, the tools have changed dramatically, but the principle remains the same.
Most agronomic data still originates in the field: yield, plant height, stand counts and other observable traits. But today’s datasets stretch far beyond what Wallace could have imagined. Researchers now capture detailed genetic information at the molecular level. Drones sweep fields collecting high-resolution imagery. Satellites deliver in-season insights on crop health and variability. Sensors stream environmental data in real time.
The opportunity, and the challenge, is pulling those streams together into one.
“We have data coming from so many different sources,” Bowen says. “Now the challenge is aggregating that information so we can make effective decisions.”
From Wallace’s handwritten yield notes to today’s cloud-based analytics platforms, Bowen says one thing hasn’t changed: better data, consistently applied, drives better decisions. And those decisions continue to push the ceiling on what farmers can grow.
No Ceiling in Sight for Corn Yields
When asked about the top-end potential for corn yield, Podlich didn’t want to put a number on it. Instead, he referenced David Hula’s 623-bu. record with P14-830.
“Just 10 years ago, no one would have believed that we could get to 600 bushels,” Podlich adds. “I’m not a brave person who would predict how high we would get.”
Instead of naming a ceiling, he pointed to a symbol embedded in Pioneer’s logo, the infinity sign in the center of the trapezoid.
“That infinity symbol represents endless progress,” he says. “It was deliberate from our founders that we want to continue to drive that yield. We’ll sort of see where we get to. But as we continue to use these technologies, I’m sure it’s going to increase. Because genetic improvement and the interaction with management is not going to stop.”
He says improved genetics paired with improved management has defined the last century. The jump from roughly 25 bu. per acre 100 years ago to around 180 bushels on average today didn’t happen from genetics alone.
“You think of increased use of hybrids. You think about mechanization on the farm. You start to use synthetic nitrogen. You look at biotech traits and precision ag of today,” Podlich says. “All of those things cumulatively allow us to move from 25 bushels to 180.”
He says it’s improved genetics with improved management practices that have already led to and will continue to drive higher yields.
