Spain is the second stop on the trip. In Valladolid, they meet (from left to right): Ángel Gonzalez Del Brio, Kristof Stolze, María Belén Kistner, and Dener Lazzari.
Breeding
Roaming the Rye Belt
The summer months are a particularly busy travel period for our rye breeders. Now one of them tells us about all the places they go and why these visits are so vital.
María Belén Kistner hardly gets a moment’s rest in the summer. The native of Argentina then has to pack her suitcase, grab her passport and head to the airport. Her destination? The “Rye Belt” countries where KWS is expanding beyond its traditional core rye markets.
Since April 2022, Belén has been working as a rye breeder with a clear mission: to ensure a strong and competitive product portfolio for the Rye Belt. Her travels are far from routine – they’re essential for trial quality control, understanding environmental conditions, evaluating hybrid performance, and guiding selection decisions. She doesn’t do this alone: Her breeding technician Laura Ahlers and members of the local teams often join her on these trips, contributing valuable insights and support to align breeding efforts with the specific needs in these expanding markets.
“We start in May with the Italian locations in Este and Forlì,” Belén says. “Most rye breeders travel to Italy, since that’s where we produce the hybrids that will later be evaluated in yield trials.” In the field, the team walks along the strips, examining the parental components as well as the production of experimental hybrids and pre-basic and basic seed. They assess diagnostic traits to determine whether these seed productions are uniform and pure (true to type) and also ensure male sterility of female components. Deviating parents and productions are eliminated or epurated on site. The team also evaluates the agronomic management of our seed productions. All these are key steps to ensure the optimal production of our experimental hybrids.
Kenny Piecharka, Belén, and Dener (from right to left) examine a rye field in Alberta, Canada, for upcoming registration trials.
Belén is enthusiastic about details and international cooperation in her job.
Italy is followed by Spain
Once production has been reviewed, Belén moves on to Spain, where on-site visits help her understand local conditions and engage directly with the KWS team and authorities involved in registration trials. While much of this could be discussed in a Teams call, Belén emphasizes the value of being on the ground.
“Laura and I collect all trial-related data in one file on our Rye Breeding SharePoint – we call it the ‘Characteristic File,’” Belén says, proudly. “It covers everything from weather conditions to sowing issues.” Arriving at the site with this context helps to score trials more effectively and have better discussions. “And we always leave with even more insights. Later, during data analysis, that extra context makes an important difference in interpreting the results – it’s amazing.”
Belén often travels with a small team – both locally and internationally. Exchanging ideas with colleagues from International Portfolio Management, such as Kristof Stolze and Magdalena Buschmann, helps to better connect markets and breeding opportunities. The distances are long: Our trial areas are not situated directly at the stations, which means the hybrids are tested across different soils and climatic conditions. “Rye isn’t as widespread in Spain as it is in Germany,” she explains. “That’s why dialogue is extremely important. When we’re on site, we can discuss why the sowing times or agronomic details need to be adjusted.”
"I learn so much on my travels"
María Belén Kistner
On the road in the U.S. and Canada
From Spain, it’s then on to North America in late June or early July. The locations there are particularly far apart – Belén, Laura and the local KWS team often spend hours in the car. A special companion on the trip was Dener Lazzari, who previously worked as a breeding technician for the Rye Belt and has since taken on the role of Rye Product Manager in the U.S. His presence brought valuable insights, bridging experience from European trials to the North American context. Unlike in Germany, there are no official variety registration trials in the U.S. That’s why we primarily visit our own trial fields to engage with the people there: “Like in Spain, we check how the hybrids are performing, talk about the season, and understand local market needs, like whether the rye is used for feeding livestock or whisky distilling,” Belén explains. “We also look at the technology used, since machinery and sowing methods often differ from what we know in Europe.”
The U.S. isn’t the final port of call – next comes Canada, where most of our trials are registration trials, organized both by authorities and by KWS. The results from these trials must be submitted to the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale (PRCWRT) to request support for hybrid registration. “That’s why it’s so important for us to visit and assess the trial quality,” Belén explains.
By the time the field season ends in July, Belén has covered several thousand kilometers. But she doesn’t find her work the least bit tiring: “It’s really exciting to look at the trials, analyze the environmental influences in the regions, compare them with our trials in Germany and Poland, and see how differently varieties develop. I learn so much on my travels – for instance, the hectoliter weight of rye is a key quality trait in North America, for the distilling markets, whereas it’s not considered as important here in Germany.”
Even though her doctoral thesis was on resistance breeding in corn, Belén’s current fascination is rye: “This cereal is so diverse and offers great learning potential, especially in new markets where it isn’t a traditional crop. The detailed work and international collaboration are simply fun.” |
Info
Prospects in the Rye Belt
In the Rye Belt, KWS promotes international competitiveness through breeding, optimization of cultivation, and expanded use and marketing.
More information about the Rye Belt can be found on the intranet.
© KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA 2025
