Cereals exhibitor 2009

DSV, one of Europe’s largest plant breeders, is concentrating on its speciality at Cereals – hybrid oilseed rape.

It will display the components of hybrid oilseed rape breeding, from mother- and fatherlines through to seed production and a final hybrid plant.

Hybrid seed is produced when the pollen from one plant fertilises another. Oilseed rape is mostly self-pollinating, so hybrid production needs a pollen-sterile motherline and a pollen-producing fatherline. The skill of the breeder is finding lines that both combine well and deliver a good response.

Hybrid seed grower Andrew Kyle, from Girvan, Ayr, will be present both days to explain the intricacies of hybrid seed growing to farmers