Wheat Genetics & Testing

PlainsGold wheat varieties are developed by a public wheat breeding and genetics program that has nearly 50 years of experience developing industry-leading winter wheat varieties specifically adapted for the High Plains region.

Field Testing

Our unique approach to wheat variety development is based on a firm foundation of field-testing. All PlainsGold varieties are tested in one of the country’s strongest field-testing programs with more than 50 locations. Only the best varieties from these trials are released and all new and existing PlainsGold varieties continue participation in the testing program to provide wheat farmers across the High Plains region with the yield and quality information they need to make informed decisions on their farm.

High Tech Facilities

In addition to field-testing, our wheat-breeding program takes full advantage of the excellent facilities on the Colorado State University (CSU) campus, including state-of-the-art greenhouses, end-use quality testing, and molecular genetics/genomics laboratories. Together, these resources provide us with the necessary tools to develop improved varieties using the latest of new technologies. Our program is staffed by a extremely dedicated wheat breeder and experienced research associates. Plus, we have the necessary facilities and infrastructure to support future growth and ensure success.

Industry Leader

Since 1963, the public wheat-breeding program that supplies new and innovative varieties to PlainsGold has released more than 30 improved wheat varieties. Over this span growers have continued to experience improvements in grain yield and yield stability, disease and insect resistance, and end-use quality.

PlainsGold currently offers a number of hard red winter wheat and hard white winter wheat varieties to farmers across the High Plains region through our network of seed growers.

PlainsGold is proud to work exclusively with the CSU wheat breeding and crop testing programs. This program has consistently delivered industry-leading wheat varieties that address the needs of wheat growers in the High Plains region. The program delivered the first publicly developed, two-gene Clearfield wheat with the release of Brawl CL Plus in 2011. This was proceeded by launching the first ever Clearfield wheat in the US with Above in 2001 and the first variety resistant to the Russian wheat aphid in1995 – Halt.

The tradition continues by bringing this line up of industry-leading, publicly developed wheat varieties to the wheat industry under the new PlainsGold brand.