At a major seed-corn company (Pioneer/Corteva, Bayer/Monsanto, Syngenta, AgReliant) or specialty seed-corn producer, you manage the production of hybrid seed corn — supervising detasseling operations, coordinating production fields, managing seed-quality work, and the integrated operational work commercial seed-corn production involves.
Seed-corn production combines agronomic discipline with industrial-production logistics — managing the production fields (often hundreds or thousands of contracted acres), coordinating the detasseling work that hybrid-corn production requires (massive seasonal labor crews, mechanical detasselers, the quality-control work detasseling requires), supporting harvest operations specific to seed corn (gentler handling than commercial corn), and the cross-functional work with company breeders, sales, and downstream processing. Production outcomes, hybrid-purity quality, and operational efficiency are the operating measures.
What makes seed-corn production distinct is the labor-intensity of the detasseling season — during the brief detasseling window (typically July), production fields require substantial coordinated labor (crews of hundreds, often including significant youth-labor traditions in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and the broader Corn Belt). The manager coordinates labor, equipment, and field-operations work at high intensity during this window.
This role fits people who are agronomically grounded, comfortable with large-scale field operations, and capable of coordinating substantial seasonal labor. Agronomy or seed-industry credentials, AAS or BS in agronomy, and ongoing CE anchor advancement. The trade-off is the detasseling-season intensity that compresses major operational work into weeks and the labor-management complexity that seed-corn production routinely involves.
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Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Agriculture roles →At a major seed-corn company (Pioneer/Corteva, Bayer/Monsanto, Syngenta, AgReliant) or specialty seed-corn producer, you manage the production of hybrid seed corn — supervising detasseling operations, coordinating production fields, managing seed-quality work, and the integrated operational work commercial seed-corn production involves.
Median pay for a Seed Corn Production Manager is about $88K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $52K to $157K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Critical Thinking, Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, and Complex Problem Solving.
Employment in this field is projected to decline about 1.3% through 2034, with roughly 5,910 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Seed Analyst, Agricultural Production Engineer, and Garden Center Manager.
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