Breeding scheme optimization

Webinar: Costing for breeding programs

The “Breeding Costing Tool” is a powerful solution for allowing users to estimate the cost of crop breeding and its associated research activities and to help breeders make decisions about resource allocation. The costing tool is designed to calculate the cost of running a crop breeding activity, or an entire breeding pipeline, using the prices, costs and salaries from a single year. The software is freely available from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation and the University of Queensland in Australia.

Optimal program sizes

What is an optimal program size?

The size of the breeding program is something that can increase the genetic gain by taking advantage of factors such as selection intensity or the among- and within-family variance.

These simulation reports demonstrate the trade-offs between of number of parents, crosses and progeny per cross, and provide practical advice on how to set the level of each. 

Contact: d.gemenet@cgiar.org

 

Choosing the right number of testers

What is the right number of testers?

Hybrid breeding aims to keep and increase the non-additive interactions in the final products while increasing the additive genetic value in a recurrent selection program.

The following simulation reports and retrospective analyses explore questions such as how many testers should be used to capture the general combining ability (GCA) that maximizes additive and non-additive effects.

Contact: d.gemenet@cgiar.org

 

Implementing hybrid breeding

Should we move to hybrid breeding?

Hybrid breeding aims to keep and increase the non-additive interactions in the final products while increasing the additive genetic value in a recurrent selection program.

The following simulation reports show how the hybrid genetic model applies to non-inbred crops and different ploidies. In addition, we provide practical advice for related questions related to testers, 3-way crosses, etc.

Contact: m.r.labroo@cgiar.org