History Timeline

In many ways, 2007 marked a decade of seed industry consolidation that started with Monsanto and Holden’s Foundation Seed in 1997. In 2007, the mergers and acquisitions trend struck closer to home with Syngenta’s Golden Harvest group purchase. This round of consolidation continued to adjust the Illinois Crop Improvement membership list and, as a result, how it generated revenues. The seed industry consolidation was driven mainly by rapid changes in biotechnology, which brought a chemistry and manufacturing mindset to the industry. These changes also altered seed company demand for traditional services from Illinois Crop. As Illinois seed company ownership effectively moved out of state, the Illinois Crop Improvement Association continued to aim for a stronger position in providing services to the industry. Still, the rapid industry consolidation negatively affected the bottom line.

Today’s agriculture has a greater expectation regarding the performance of seed products and technology delivered through seed improvements. Because of this, Illinois Crop Improvement began participating in a wide range of validations and proficiencies as part of a broader quality management commitment. Illinois Crop Improvement maintains its ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation and maintains staff with analyst accreditations such as Registered Seed Technologist and Registered Genetic Technologist. Illinois Crop has and continues to offer a unique set of accredited services to support an industry. This role requires good science and strong partners in advancing seed products and technology.

Illinois Crop continued to navigate biotechnology issues throughout the 2000s, resulting in access to new collaborators and a strategic alliance with GeneScan. PASS, or the Producer Audited Supply System was the first joint program to bear fruit. The program provided a multi-national seed company with a seed and grain stewardship program that protected export markets from traits lacking global regulatory approval. Mike Russell and Dennis Thompson led the alliance efforts and, in 2006, developed the TRAC, Tracking Residue and Contaminants, a program in cooperation with RQA, Copesan, and later Degesch America.

Illinois Crop added the weed-free forage and mulch program to its portfolio under a program administered by the North American Weed Management Association. Today, accreditation is done through the North American Invasive Species Management Association (NIASMA). Illinois Crop has expanded with the program and now includes quarry inspections for weed-free rock and construction materials. The NAISMA Certified Weed Free Products program is the only program in North America that provides federal, state, tribal, and local land managers a way to mitigate noxious weeds spread through the movement of forage, hay, mulch, gravel, or compost brought into a managed property.

The US OECD Seed Schemes administration transitioned from the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) in 2004. New cooperative agreements were implemented between AMS and individual seed certification agencies as part of the transition. Perry Bohn, USDA AMS, reported a smooth transition during the ASTA Seed Industry Relations Committee at Chicago’s ASTA Seed Expo and Conferences. He also noted that USDA AMS added over 411 new entries to the US list of approved varieties since the administrative transfer. The 70 percent increase was attributed mainly to companies waiting for the administrative transfer to be completed and the weak dollar increasing international sales.

The accreditation of company labs was seen as the next step in the progress gained under field inspection accreditation. Yet in what will sound like today’s headlines “A universally recognized and unified lab accreditation system for the US continues to be an elusive animal.” Mark Condon of ASTA reported that a seed testing accreditation discussion paper was under review for publication the following year (2005). As researched by an ad hoc ASTA committee, the paper aimed to discuss domestic and international lab accreditation systems. The group felt that “questions of scope, purpose, and equivalency for the various lab accreditation proposals and programs” were expected to continue in the foreseeable future.

The GeneTrue and TrueTrait service marks were adopted by the association to differentiate services that applied specifically to biotechnology. GeneTrue was used to promote testing services, and TrueTrait served as an umbrella for everything from field inspections and process audits to stewardship monitoring services. Ahead of its time in may respects, it was not adopted by the seed industry and was criticized for drawing a distinction where no distinction was needed.

When Monsanto changed its Roundup Ready® Soybean seed field inspection requirements, the association saw a 90% decline in Roundup Ready acres for inspection. While many inspections continued, this was the high water mark for the number of inspectors employed in Illinois. Just over ninety inspectors were needed to inspect Illinois corn, soybean, and small grain seed fields before major changes in the seed industry. By its 100th year of service in 2022, the number of inspectors employed was half as many at approximately forty-five.

This project would not have been possible without the approximately 90 inspectors the association employed at the time and the thousands of acres of Illinois Crop-inspected seed production fields across Illinois. The project’s full title was “Sampling for the Presence of Soybean Cyst Nematodes (SCN) in Illinois Soybean Seed Production Fields.” Approximately 3,500 fields in 86 counties were sampled over the three-year life of the project. The final report was submitted to the Illinois Soybean Association in July 2001. The resulting database was transferred to the University of Illinois for future reference and research. Illinois Crop also allowed seed companies to access the data collected from their fields. This included the ICIA field number, the number of cysts found per sample, and, in some cases, the estimated number of eggs in 100cc of soil.

Illinois Cereal Mills (ICM) engaged Illinois Crop in an audit and inspection role for its InnovaSure® branded corn product program. The clean bin inspections for selected growers occurred pre-harvest, and in-season isolation checks and an audit of the growers records were also conducted. This program also marked the shift from a seed certification model for identity preservation to a documented systems approach that relied on audits of the company’s activities. Programs would go before the AOSCA IP Sub-Committee for approval. Once authorized, the lead agency and participating company were able to utilize the trademarked AOSCA IP logo.

Illinois Seed News Article – July-Aug 2000 George Keith was manager of ICIA from January 1, 1965 until his retirement on August 31, 1979. Keith was well known in the seed industry. During his tenure as ICIA manager he created the Illinois Soybean Conference and the Five-Acre Yield Contest, a statewide soybean yield contest sponsored by the Land of Lincoln Soybean Association and ICIA with support from the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service. ICIA developed a special services program to allow the early testing and identity of superior seed lots after harvest during his tenure. The program included a two-tag system. The certified tag identified the seed lot and variety with the second tag including the analysis.

In 1970, Illinois and much of the Midwest corn crop was devastated by southern corn leaf blight. Dr. Art Hooker, then a plant breeder at the University of Illinois, figured out that the problem was associated with Texas male sterile cytoplasmic corn. By switching to normal cytoplasm corn, the problem was eliminated. The predicament was that nearly all corn companies had switched to male sterile corn.

To be ready for the 1971 planting season, Illinois seedsmen had to germinate all corn in cold storage that did not have T-cytoplasm to make sure it was worthy to sell to farmers. George Keith and ICIA Lab Supervisor Martha Hatchett were at the lab seven days a week reading germinations to get data back to seedsmen as quickly as possible.

George Keith passed away on May 16, 2000 after a short illness. Keith was named an honorary member in 1979.

—Source Illinois Seed News Volume IX, Number 1 July-Aug 2000.