b'PARTNER CONTENTA History of Fantastic Varieties that ContinuesBy: Vera Ricicov, head of Hrubcice Breeding StationL imagrains breeding station in Hrub ice (Czech Republic) hasRadana, LG Gabka, LG Aneri and most importantly Dagmar. Dag-been breeding for 75 years. Currently, two breeding teams aremar variety has been the best-selling early variety for a long time, working on the breeding of new varieties of barley and wheatwith food grade A and excellent winter resistance! and have much to build on in their work. The successors of theThe aim of our breeders is to breed new, more efficient va-prominent authors of successful varieties are Radim Korho , headrieties with high malting quality; varieties that are suitable to of spring barley breeding, and Tom Nov ek, head of winter wheatproduce both Czech and standard beers. Moreover, the winter breeding.wheat breeding program is mainly focused on breeding modern The spring barley breeding program focuses on three types ofhigh-performance varieties. products. These are mainly malting barley varieties suitable forThe basis of breeding is to walk the field, work there with the production of Czech beer, malting varieties suitable for thebreeding materials, and make selections. Of course, for wheat production of standard beers and, marginally, also for the breed- breeding we also use the most modern methods, including mo-ing of feed varieties.lecular markers. These methods help us significantly to refine the Over the years, a total of 39 varieties of spring barley haveselections and shorten the breeding cycle. Using the dihaploid been registered, mostly of malting quality10 of which haveinduction method, it is possible to shorten the breeding cycle to been recommended by the Research Institute of Brewing & Malt- five years.ing (VPS) for the production of beer. These include varietiesOver the past few years, a total of 23 winter wheat varieties such as Bojos, Malz, Petrus, Laudis 550, LG Monus, LG Ester andhave been registered; in addition to the already mentioned excel-the recently registered new varieties LG Sladek, LG Slovan andlent varieties Dagmar, Judita and Nordika, these also include the LG Stamgast. LG Stamgast is already finding its way to proces- new varieties LG Dita and from spring 2022 LG Fiona and the very sors and growers and LG Slovan, which has a quality profile veryearly variety LG Rozarka as well.similar to the already legendary Malz variety, is being intensivelyThe greatest emphasis is on quality food wheat, according to tested in operational trials in malting plants and breweries. market requirementsfrom Elite to biscuit.Among the important varieties from the turn of the century,The varieties bred at the Breeding Station in Hrub ice are I would like to mention the very successful Hana variety whichregistered and successfully traded not only in the Czech Republic has excellent food quality, as well as varieties such as Ina, Vega,and throughout Europe, but also in many countries in North and Evelyna and, one of the most cultivated winter wheat varieties,South America and Asia; production from our varieties is also an the Etela variety. The shortlist of successful winter wheat varietiesimportant export commodity. should certainly not forget the very early seeded variety Jindra,The breeding station in Hrub ice is a workplace with an inte-or the recently registered excellent varieties Nordika, Judita, LGresting history and certainly an extraordinary future. SEPTEMBER 2023 SEEDWORLD.COM /47'