World's First Commercial Corn Pollen Harvester

World's First Commercial Corn Pollen Harvester AG WORLD Ag World 18-5-28 An Ontario agronomist who's pioneering new uses for corn pollen says the new "crop" could someday provide substantial extra income for corn producers. To prove the feasibility of the idea, he's built a 1-row self-propelled "corn pollen harvester" by modifying a commercial 4-row "high-boy" corn detasseling machine. Peter Dragla, Chatham, Ontario, developed the corn pollen harvester with help from Gordon Scheifele, a forage specialist at Ridgetown College of Agricultural Technology in Kent, Ontario. The harvester collects surplus pollen from corn fields with-out hurting grain production. Dragla says pure pollen can be used in food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. His company, Copoll International, is testing uses for processed pollen. A British Columbia company al-ready is using corn pollen as an ingredient in nutritious snack bars. "Corn pollen has a strong, honey-like taste that makes a great flavoring agent and food supplement," says Dragla. "It's high in protein and amino acids, but also has minerals and a wide range of vitamins, as well as many plant hormones and enzymes. The pollen has a nice golden color and is a good fermentation agent for yeast so it would be perfect to use with specialty breads. It could also be used in a wide variety of other foods." The pollen harvester uses rotating brushes to remove the flower parts from the tassel without injuring the rest of the plant. A pair of deflectors direct tassels into the harvesting unit which consists of a cylinder fitted with two rotating brushes powered by a hydraulic motor. The brushes beat the tassels against a steel plate, removing the anthers and pollen. The anthers and pollen are then sucked through a hole at the bottom of the cylinder by a belt-driven fan (salvaged from an old combine). The fan blows the material through a flexible 3-in. dia. hose into a metal "cyclone", then into a pollen collector which allows the air to pass through but retains the pollen. To in-crease productivity, this prototype will be developed into a 4-row pollen harvester. Dragla then dries and processes the material to recover the pure pollen, using liquid nitrogen to break down the pollen's tough shell. The anthers are ground up to release the pollen inside them, then the ground-up anthers and pieces of tassels are sifted away from the pollen and discarded. He harvests from every other two rows in a corn field, which comes out to about 40 lbs. per acre and leaves plenty of pollen for the crop. "Theoretically, a single tassel contains enough pollen to fertilize one acre of corn," says Dragla, who adds that his company is looking for a business partner to develop the project into a new food ingredient industry. Dragla estimates the potential value of 40 lbs. of pollen at about $1 per pound. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Pe-ter Dragla, Copoll International, 189 Delaware Ave., Chatham, Ontario, Canada N7L 2W5 (ph 519 354-7462).

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