Breeding for the Eastern Growing Areas of the United States

Betaseed's corporate headquarters at Shakopee, Minnesota doubles as home to our Eastern Region research staff. From this location, we coordinate performance trials and disease nurseries of thousands of potential new varieties for this growing area.

Plant breeders at our Shakopee Research Center annually produce thousands of hybrid combinations which are screened for disease resistance, sugar content, root yield, sugar yield, quality and other characteristics using field and full-scale laboratory facilities. Sugar content and juice purity analyses are performed on each plot in every trial. Field and laboratory results are used for determining which lines will advance to the next stage of product development.

Shakopee, because of its location and history, is also the center that tests all new hybrids for tolerance to Cercospora and Aphanomyces. For Cercospora, extensive trials are planted, with the plots later inoculated with Cercospora spores. The climate in the area of Shakopee, with its hot, humid summers, provides ideal conditions for the spread of a good Cercospora infection, against which new material can be evaluated. Similarly, in the case of Aphanomyces, a heavy infection of this soil-borne disease has been cultured in designated fields, encouraged by our warm wet weather. Shakopee is also where entries in the official coded trials for several sugar companies are evaluated for Cercospora and Aphanomyces resistance.

Our Moorhead facility provides a support team responsible for carrying out replicated yield trials at numerous locations throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and eastern Montana. These trials are located in the fields of commercial sugarbeet growers and the results provide essential information to the breeders about each new variety when grown under commercial conditions.

Phone: (800) 428-8455
Email: infoseek@betaseed.com

Shakopee, MN | Kimberly, ID | Disease Information