Hybrid Wheat Seed Production in North Dakota

Wheat breeders with universities and commercial seed companies in the United States have been developing procedures and germ plasm for production of hybrid wheat. Research evaluating the merits of several alternative breeding procedures currently continues. Breeders were improving the agronomic milling and baking characteristics of parental lines, and were beginning to produce and evaluate hybrids to identify the superior hybrids. The economic success of hybrid wheat depends upon the yield advantage shown by hybrids over conventional wheat varieties, and the cost of planting hybrid seed as compared to present seed costs. Hybrid seed production is accomplished through the use of three wheat lines. Hybrid seed usually is obtained by planting the female and male parents in alternate drill strips. The article reviews a study conducted in hybridization