For more than 85 years, Great Lakes Hybrids has been a seed-only company focused on supplying the genetic and service needs of our customers.

Today, with AgReliant Genetics’ breeding program and a revolutionary new doubled-haploid breeding process, Great Lakes stands ready to meet the emerging needs of farmers in a way that no other seed company can.

Generations of History
In 1921, Fritz Mantey introduced Michigan Certified Seeds, harvesting open-pollinated seed corn from his own acres, and selling to his neighbors. For more than 85 years, the company that became Great Lakes Hybrids has kept the integrity of farmer-to-farmer sales. It continues to be owned and operated by seedsmen and engaged in strategic partnerships that expand the capacity for research, while growing the sales market to include neighboring states. Today, Great Lakes Hybrids (GLH) is part of AgReliant Genetics, the 4th largest seed company in North America, offering the 4th largest corn breeding program in the industry.

AgReliant Genetics is made up of KWS Seeds and LimaGrain, the two largest, independent seed companies in the world with more than 200 years of combined seed experience. We are developing proprietary genetics in a Top-4 corn breeding and research program utilizing our molecular marker lab and proprietary doubled-haploid technology. Our seed production features state-of-the-art harvesting and conditioning equipment including new color sorter technology. Seed is our only priority.

Generations of Performance
Great Lakes Hybrids has the highest winning percentage in the prestigious National Corn Growers Yield Contest for the last 20 years, with 56 National Corn Growers Yield Contest Champions in the past two years alone.

Our independent performance is also verified by our 60 F.I.R.S.T. Trial wins in the past two years, including the #1 overall hybrid in the 2003 trials with 5961Bt.

You can experience this great performance on your farm today!

A New Generation of Research
The year 2006 marks a turning point not only for Great Lakes but for the entire seed industry. With the introduction of the world’s most advanced doubled-haploid breeding program, AgReliant and Great Lakes now have the ability to produce genetically pure strains in 70 percent less time than ever before. For the farmer, this means hybrids will be brought to market at a dramatically faster pace, with accelerated gains in yield and profitability.

Even more important than our breeding technologies, Great Lakes offers its own proprietary germplasm, the product of decades of aggressive development. Last year alone, AgReliant Genetics developed more than 40,000 new genetic combinations which yielded 24 new hybrids from 19 unique, new genetic lines.

We can access proprietary germplasm from a worldwide network of more than 130 breeding stations, research locations, and gene technology labs. And because Great Lakes is independent from any trait supplier, we have the flexibility to combine our best germplasm with the best value-added traits.

In terms of genetics, performance and technological innovation, Great Lakes Hybrids is GENERATIONS AHEAD.

Introducing G3 Series
Outstanding weed control. Unsurpassed insect protection. And the genetics that produced 56 NCGA winners and 60 F.I.R.S.T. champions in just two years. All in one high-value hybrid. That’s the new G3 series from Great Lakes Hybrids.

One big advantage of doubled haploid breeding: it cuts two years off the development of traited hybrids. With the new doubled-haploid G3 series, Great Lakes launches the first look at what brand manager Mike Stephenson sees as the ultimate intersection of technology and nature.

“You can’t argue with nature,” said Stephenson, “But you can make some strong suggestions.”

And suggest they have. Great Lakes has developed four of its top champions as triple-stacked hybrids, effectively marrying the world’s top breeding technology, germplasm and yield protection in one hybrid series. Those hybrids—4297 G3, 5098 G3, 5961 G3 and Quad-5 G3—are available in Great Lakes’ 2006 offerings.

Generations Ahead
In line with its emerging genetic leadership, Great Lakes is launching a marketing blitz that’s as bold and unique as the technology that spawned it. Built on the tag line, Generations Ahead, the campaign features outsized messages, doubled type, and a streamlined design concept, complete with double helix. There is also a complete new line of collateral materials, a redesigned website and an energetic launch with our entire sales and dealer force.

“It’s a bold position,” said marketing manager Doug Little. “But we’ve got one of the great breeding technologies of the last hundred years and almost a century’s worth of championship germplasm. We’re looking at a bold new world.”

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