Galena’s Soybean Breeding Program

Galena Genetics uses conventional soybean breeding practices.

Soybeans are self-pollinating. Their flowers contain both male and female parts. Traditional soybean crossing involves taking the pollen from a flower on one plant and pollinating the stigma of a flower on another plant. From the time you make that initial cross, it can take 7-9 years for the fruit of that cross to make it to the ag marketplace. Want specifics? Check the Birth of a New Variety story on our Website.

Successful conventional soybean breeding requires careful planning, technical expertise, skillful and knowledgeable breeding staff, patience, and careful management. It requires carefully choosing the crosses to make by examination of each parent seed’s traits, having an end goal in mind (such as yield potential, or a specific disease resistance trait), observation, and finally evaluation of each cross’s progeny toward our end goals. While 10,000 or more crosses may be made in a year, only 1-3 new lines from those crosses may meet Galena Genetics’ demanding standards and make it into our product line in the years ahead.

Galena Genetics breeds Non-GMO soybean lines to meet the specific needs of both our ag producers and the food consumer.