Harvesting And Processing Of Hybrid Seed Corn
At Silver Lane Hybrids

This machine is the seed treatment applicator. Robin is adjusting it to make sure that the proper amount of treatment is applied to the kernels. Inside the machine you would see a slurry made up of seed treatment, dye, water, and drying agents. Why put a seed treatment on the seed? The seed treatment is actually a mixture of fungicide and insecticide. This mixture will help protect the seed as it sprouts from fungal diseases and ground borne insects.

Here you see the seed after the treatment has been applied. Notice the bright color. This is a dye we use to identify seed that has been treated. It is important that this seed not be used as human or animal feed, so we dye it a bright color.

After being treated the seed must be bagged. This is part of the bagging machine. It contains a large hopper and a scales. It automatically weighs out one 80,000 kernel bag of seed. To do this we take the seeds/pound and divide it into 80,000. i.e. 1700seeds/pound divided into 80,000 gives a bag weight of 48 pounds. We always put a few extra kernels in each bag.

This machine uses a spiral and vibration to run a column of kernels in single file up to the top of the machine, once the kernels reach the top they fall by a sensor which counts them. This is how we determine the number of seeds in a pound.

Rob is ready to fill a bag of seed corn. The bag is place over the discharge and is filled when the proper weight is reached in the hopper of the bagging machine.

Here is a full bag of Purple Ribbon Seed Corn. The corn seed is now properly sized, and its quality has been improved by the several processes it went through to get to this point

This is the sewing machine where the top of the bag is closed and at least two seed tags are attached. By law all seed sold in Indiana must have a seed treatment tag and a quality tag attached. The seed treatment tags states what chemical were applied to the seed. The quality tag states the germination, amount of impurities, hybrid name, lot number and bag weight. The germination is done by Indiana Crop Improvement an independent testing lab. The State Chemist is charged with enforcing Indiana's seed laws and we are regularly inspected by them to assure  high quality standard. We put only the best quality seed in a Purple Ribbon bag.

After the top is sown shut we apply a stencil that states the hybrid number which is in the bag. Why do we do this? Can you imagine having a bag of seed, that for what ever reason, has had the tags removed. By stenciling we know what in the bag.

After a short trip up the conveyor the seed is stacked onto a pallet. A pallet of seed at Silver Lane Hybrids is 48 bags. The pallet of seed is then  wrapped in plastic to protect it from the elements.

Here you can see many pallets of seed stacked in our warehouse awaiting shipment. We have room for many thousands of bags in three separate warehouses. We will start shipping in January with our largest month for shipment being February.   It takes allot of hard work by our people to get everything processed and in the bag in time for shipment.