Since 1903 cereal breeding takes place at Edelhof near Zwettl, Lower Austria. The main focus lies on the breeding of top-quality wheat for Europe, high-yielding wheat with medium quality, two-rowed winter barley, spring barley with a high percentage of plump seeds, early maturing quality oats, open-pollinating rye and varieties for organic farming. With the directive 2009/28/EG and the installation of a bio-ethanol plant in Austria, breeders interest in selecting cereals for ethanol production awaked. This means in particular field selection, investments in quality analyses and targeted projects, and furthermore the implementation of a new breeding programme (parallel to bread cereal breeding). From crossing to variety release several years pass by. Meanwhile, cereal breeders had to realize that from the bio-ethanol market there is no special interest in varieties specific for this purpose.
