The production of sugar beet seed demands a lot of expertise and a close cooperation between the breeders and the seed growers.

Sugar beet is a biennial plant. To produce sugar, the root, which is developed by the plant as a storage organ, is important. To produce seed takes an additional growing period to bring the plant to flower. The aim of the breeder is to generate high sugar yield for sugar beet growers, and in order to deliver high quality seed, good seed performance at the same time.

The seed production areas are located in climatic favourable conditions around the 45th median. In Europe this means the south of France and the north of Italy, where winters are mild and summers are long and dry with a lot of sunshine, so the seed crops can grow in most advantageous conditions.

The basic seed is drilled by the Company's Fieldsmen in nursery fields in August /September as "mother" and "pollinator" lines. The small plants, known as "stecklings", spend the winter in these fields to be vernalised. It is this vernalisation that causes the plants to push up stems and produce flowers the following year. The steckling nurseries must be on fields that have never been used for sugar beet seed production.

The following spring, in February/March, these vernalised stecklings are first topped and then lifted and put in boxes. The choice of good, even stecklings allows very uniform development of the seed plants. The stecklings are then transplanted into the final production field with a transplanter that puts the plants into the soil at regular intervals.

Transplanting is undertaken according to a precise scheme. To ensure good pollination and productivity, blocks of 6 rows of female, male sterile plants, which do not produce any pollen and are genetic monogerms, are alternated with blocks of two rows of multigerm male pollinators planted beside one another.

A crop rotation of at least six years is required for sugar beet seed production fields. The complete elimination of all plants of the same species as sugar beet, such as mangolds, folder beet and Swiss chard within the seed growing districts is compulsory. Growers are authorised, by order of the local prefecture, to visit any fallow or set aside land, as well as neighbouring gardens, within a range of at least a kilometre, in order to destroy any possible pollution sources. In the South West of France the main production area, the valleys, rivers, woods, and hills help improve the isolation.

All the seed plants are topped by hand at the end of May / beginning of June, which produces more even flowering and consequently ensures better seed maturity at harvest time. Irrigation is compulsory in order to maintain an adequate water supply to the seed plants.

The crop is closely monitored and diligently cared for during the complete growing cycle. A strong regime of fungicides and insecticides is applied throughout the growing period in order to control diseases, such as phoma, downy mildew and cercospora leaf spot, and insects, such as leafhoppers and aphids.

Each fieldsman from Hilleshög supervises 150-200 hectares of seeds bearers. He will manage approximately 75 growers and keep them informed and advised what they should do.

The start of harvest rests on the decision of the fieldsman as to when the optimal seed maturity has been achieved. This is generally around August 1st, but varies according to the hybrids and the year. All the pollinator plants will have been destroyed mechanically at the end of flowering and the final seed is harvested only from the mother lines.

There are two harvest methods: either cutting and laying on the swath - from which a combine harvester will pick up a few days later, or chemical desiccation followed by direct harvest.

Each grower must possess effective drying and seed storage facilities. Each seed lot from individual seed growers has a unique identity and will be treated as such as it enters the seed processing phase.