Hybrid wheat
ASUR Plant Breeding draws on 30 years’ experience in the breeding and production of hybrid wheat seed. This unique expertise is driven by the ASUR teams, who apply their specialist know-how on a daily basis to develop new varieties, produce their seed and provide support for putting their benefits into practice in the field.
More than 90 hybrid wheat varieties have marked the company’s history and have been registered and developed across Europe, including MERCURY, HYSUN, HYSTAR, HYFI and HYKING, right up to the ‘new generation’ varieties currently led by SU HYSTORIC. Hybrid wheat has thus been grown on nearly 4 million hectares.
Why choose hybrid wheat?
Derived from the cross-breeding of two pure-line varieties, hybrid wheat benefits from an enhanced expression of their traits. This ‘booster’ effect results in greater plant biomass, yield components that exceed those of the parent lines, and consistently high milling quality.
The breeder’s aim is to achieve a combination of two parents that offers the best possible heterosis effect, whilst ensuring the seed production process is viable. Thanks to molecular breeding, the combination of parents is optimised.
These advantages of the hybrid address the challenges of production volume and maintaining yields despite climatic uncertainties or pest pressure. The stability of its performance is a highly valued asset across a wide geographical area (the European Union and beyond).
Line wheat
Since its foundation, ASUR Plant Breeding has been selecting winter wheat varieties, with the BOSTON variety being its first to be registered. Over the last two decades, ASUR Plant Breeding has registered varieties that have regularly attracted attention, such as BAGOU, CHEVRON, CREEK, JOHNSON, and CHEVIGNON, and most recently SU PULSION.
The success of ASUR Plant Breeding’s varieties has quickly spread beyond France’s borders, establishing ASUR as a recognised player in Europe and far beyond.
The dynamic nature of the wheat breeding programme enables the company to regularly introduce new, multi-purpose and sustainable varieties, with a particular focus on the integration of cumulative tolerance traits.
Line barley
In 2024, ASUR Plant Breeding launched a breeding programme for 6-row winter barley. This new breeding programme draws on the knowledge and expertise in barley acquired over several years.
The first registrations are expected in 2028.
Changes in breeding methods
The tools available to breeders – such as molecular marking, but also the increasingly widespread use of drones to measure phenotypic parameters during the growing season – enable them to target cultivar selection more effectively and to speed up the breeding processes leading to registration.