Skip to main content
Home
  • Careers
  • Find a retailer My retailer
  • AgConnexion
  • Choose province
    • FR
  • 0
Home
Big Menu
  • What we do
    • Livestock Production
      • Production
        See all Livestock Production
        • Front view chicken illustration
          Poultry
        • Front view beef illustration
          Beef
        • Front view horse illustration
          Equine
        • Front view dairy cow illustration
          Dairy
        • Front view swine illustration
          Swine
        • Front view sheep illustration
          Sheep, goat and specialty livestock
    • Crop Production
      • Production
        See all Crop Production
        • Illustration of a seed viewed from the side
          Seed
        • Illustration of a fertilized plant viewed from the side
          Fertilizer
        • Illustration of a farm and crops in the field
          Crop protection
    • Digital Agriculture
      • Digital Agriculture
        Platform Overview
        • Illustration of a digital ecosystem that represent the AgConnexion | Portal.
          AgConnexion | Portal
        • Illustration of a pixelated farm that represent the AgConnexion | SmartFarm.
          AgConnexion | SmartFarm
        • Illustration of a pixelated cow that represent the AgConnexion | Dairy Solution.
          AgConnexion | Dairy Solution
        • Illustration of pixelated silos that represent the AgConnexion | Grain Portal.
          AgConnexion | Grain Portal
        • Hidden node
        • AgConnexion Platform
        • Through AgConnexion, agri-advisors can
          access planning, communication and analysis tools to make their work easier and support farmers.
          Sollio Agriculture Partners
        • Our multidisciplinary team works every day to develop and improve AgConnexion, our digital platform.
          Our approach to development and innovation
    • Production
      See all Livestock Production
      • Front view chicken illustration
        Poultry
      • Front view beef illustration
        Beef
      • Front view horse illustration
        Equine
      • Front view dairy cow illustration
        Dairy
      • Front view swine illustration
        Swine
      • Front view sheep illustration
        Sheep, goat and specialty livestock
    • Production
      See all Crop Production
      • Illustration of a seed viewed from the side
        Seed
      • Illustration of a fertilized plant viewed from the side
        Fertilizer
      • Illustration of a farm and crops in the field
        Crop protection
    • Digital Agriculture
      Platform Overview
      • Illustration of a digital ecosystem that represent the AgConnexion | Portal.
        AgConnexion | Portal
      • Illustration of a pixelated farm that represent the AgConnexion | SmartFarm.
        AgConnexion | SmartFarm
      • Illustration of a pixelated cow that represent the AgConnexion | Dairy Solution.
        AgConnexion | Dairy Solution
      • Illustration of pixelated silos that represent the AgConnexion | Grain Portal.
        AgConnexion | Grain Portal
      • Hidden node
      • AgConnexion Platform
      • Through AgConnexion, agri-advisors can
        access planning, communication and analysis tools to make their work easier and support farmers.
        Sollio Agriculture Partners
      • Our multidisciplinary team works every day to develop and improve AgConnexion, our digital platform.
        Our approach to development and innovation

    Spotlight

     

    Corn and soybean crop fields in summer.

    Connected farms

    Digital tools to make the right decisions at the right time.

    View our articles 

    Spotlight

    A field of corn sprouts in the spring.

    Soil health

    Phytoprotection solutions adapted to the reality of each farmer.

    View our articles 

    Login

    • AgConnexion | Customer Portal 
    • AgConnexion | Retailer Portal 
    • AgConnexion | SmartFarm 
    • Questions about AgConnexion?

      Contact us 

    • Need support?

      Contact customer service 

  • Who we are
    Bringing the strength of Canada’s largest agricultural network to each and every farmer.
    • Who we are
      • What drives us
      • Our network
      • Our Executive Committee
      • Our policies
    • What drives us
    • Our network
    • Our Executive Committee
    • Our policies
    A Canadian farmer walks through a field with his little girl on his shoulders.
  • Corporate responsibility
  • My folder 0
  • Choose province
  • Careers
  • FR
Choose optimal performance with Elite seeds
Add to my folder
Share article
Breadcrumb
Add to my folder
Share article

Choose optimal performance with Elite seeds

A wheat field sown with Elite seeds under a cloudy sky.
September 30, 2020
Elite Seeds brings together researchers and advisors who work hand in hand to promote excellence. For the research farm team in Saint-Hyacinthe and the advisors, the goal is the same every year: to provide grain farmers with the most high-performance and consistent seeds.

 

At the end of each summer, Sollio Agriculture’s crop improvement breeder, Christian Azar, travels across Québec to observe oat and barley fields. Tablet in hand, he collects thousands of data on the plants in front of him. These notes, along with the harvest analyses, will help him discover rare gems.

“It’s a real treasure hunt,” says Christian Azar enthusiastically, returning from Lac-Saint-Jean after an observation period.

 

In three days, he collected nearly 12,000 pieces of data on oat plants:

  • Appearance;

  • Standability;

  • Stalk integrity;

  • Maturity;

  • Pathology;

  • Yield;

  • Grain density;

  • Threshing ease.

     

Once we have all the data on hand, 70 % to 75 % of it ends up in the trash. Approximately a quarter of the data collected is used to develop next year’s tests. We focus on the most promising varieties.
Christian Azar, Sollio Agriculture’s crop improvement breeder 

According to Azar, who currently works in oat and barley production, the selection process is truly painstaking. “There are an infinite number of genetic crosses,” says Azar. “You need intuition, patience and rigour to develop high-performance cultivars for farmers.”

The same goes for researcher Valérie Chabot, who draws inspiration from searching for reliable and sustainable products. As someone who selects Elite’s spring wheat seeds, she spares no effort in offering increasingly high-performance seeds.

“We don’t cross-breed wheat, since the process is much more complex than barley or oats,” she says. “We are, however, in contact with wheat experts from around the world.”

Chabot identifies the cultivars that are most likely to adapt to the Québec climate and production conditions. “We have them shipped here, plant them and carefully observe how they adapt,” she says. “Elite seeds stand out specifically because they’re tried and tested here.”

 

Bridging the gap between research and field work

Lyne Beaumont’s official title is Elite seeds advisor for Sollio Agriculture. Just for fun, she likes to say that she’s a conveyor belt. “My role includes, among other things, observing what’s going on in the field and reporting back to researchers at the research farm. That’s how we ensure that the grain seeds that we’re developing meet farmers’ needs.”

Always in contact with Sollio Agriculture’s agri-advisors and researchers, she is constantly bridging the gap between her office and the field. “I spend a lot of time in the field,” she says. “I use this information to help researchers in their work, but also to train agri-advisors.”

“Sharing this field information is what gives Sollio Agriculture its strength,” says Beaumont. “We do everything we can to help farmers on the ground,” she says proudly.

 

Increasingly high-performance products

Cooperation between field and research has enabled Sollio Agriculture to make great strides in seed production in the past few years. “We have made definite improvements in terms of the standability of oats,” says researcher Christian Azar. “We are extremely proud of that.” According to Azar, yields have also risen sharply in this crop. He mentions in passing that Sollio Agriculture has the largest private improvement program dedicated to oat production in Canada.

With barley, we see major adaptation to climate change, explains the crop improvement expert. “That’s the beauty of our research program,” he says. “From year to year, the cultivars adapt to constantly changing production conditions.”

From her point of view, Valérie Chabot is pleased with the resistance to fusarium head blight that is improving from year to year with Elite seeds. “We’ve really focused on that and it’s starting to pay off,” she says. “There are some very promising strains on the way!”

Sitting in the office of Sollio Agriculture’s research farm in Saint-Hyacinthe, Christian Azar and Valérie Chabot analyze the data that they collected since the beginning of the season. Through their experiments and observations and the support of advisors, they build on their excellence, one cultivar at a time.

 

Cultivars adapted to farmers’ needs

Each variety of Elite cultivar was developed to meet the specific needs expressed by cereal farmers:

  • Kalio oats (new product): Exceptionally high-performance oats that are highly tolerant to crown rust.

  • Akina oats: A variety of white oats with exceptional standability. These white oats can be used for human consumption and are sought after by Quaker Oats.

  • Raven wheat: A versatile wheat with a consistent yield in all regions of Québec.

  • Maida wheat: A resistant wheat with a high protein content that generates excellent yield in early zones (zones 2 and 3).

About the author

Logo Sollio Agriculture

Sollio Agriculture
team


Add to my folder
Share article

Keep reading

A farmer sitting in his tractor cabin talks with a crop production agri-advisor from Sollio Agriculture.

Personalized support

Sollio Agriculture’s crop production agri-advisors are here to support farmers throughout the season.
Contact an agri-advisor
Sollio Agriculture logo
Menu Footer Sollio Principal
  • Livestock production
  • Careers
  • Crop production
  • Media
  • Digital agriculture
  • Donation and sponsorship
  • Find a retailer
  • Contact Sollio Agriculture
Footer Social Medias
  • YouTube
    Logo YouTube
  • Facebook
    Logo Facebook
  • Instagram
    Logo Instagram
  • LinkedIn
    Logo LinkedIn
  • Twitter
    Logo Twitter
Menu Footer Sollio inferieur
  • Cookie Manager
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Class Action
© 2025 Sollio Agriculture. All rights reserved.

Search

Search Suggestions:

AgConnexion
Digital Agriculture
Research Farm
Careers
AgConnexion
  • Login
  • Customer Portal
  • Retailer Portal
  • SmartFarm
  • Questions about AgConnexion?
    Contact us
  • Need support?
    Contact customer service
My folder

Use your folder to save content for later.

Share my folder(0)
URL copied
Choose province

Choose your province so we can show you content that matters to you.

My retailer

Name of selected retailer

Find another retailer

Login

AgConnexion | SmartFarm
Fields followed by * are required.

Please provide your email address.

Please enter your password.

Forgot your password? Contact us