For plant breeders and trait developers, time is both a precious resource and a limiting factor. In a competitive landscape where the race to bring new genetics and traits to market is ever accelerating, maximizing growing cycles and accelerating generation advancement is essential. Illinois Crop Improvement Association’s Puerto Rico services offer a high-impact solution — a dedicated, independent winter farm delivering year-round support in plant breeding, trait development, and seed quality assurance.
Located in Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico, this facility serves as a crucial bridge between seasons, collaborators, licensing entities and breeding programs by providing the stewardship, science, and service needed to streamline innovation product pipelines. Whether you’re accelerating breeding timelines, trait introgression, validating trait performance, increasing seed, or conducting essential growouts for purity and hybridity verification, Illinois Crop’s Puerto Rico operations are built to deliver.
Puerto Rico offers a unique geographic and climatic advantage: the ability to grow crops year-round. For breeders who typically operate in temperate climates, this opens the door to an uninterrupted research and production cycle. Instead of waiting for spring to resume critical breeding or evaluation work, Illinois Crop’s winter farm allows for continuous improvement with services tailored to your program’s specific goals.
Moreover, as an independent third party, Illinois Crop Improvement brings credibility, objectivity, and industry-recognized quality standards to every project. This combination of tropical growing conditions and technical rigor makes Puerto Rico a strategic asset for any forward-thinking breeding or seed development organization.
Illinois Crop’s Puerto Rico site supports a wide range of crops, including Corn (field, popcorn, specialty), soybean, small grains, legumes (such as peas, cowpeas, dry beans, and peanuts), sorghum, pearl millet, sunflower, kenaf, broomcorn, and more.
The winter farm offers a robust portfolio of services to meet the diverse needs of plant breeders, trait developers, and seed producers:
Baseline and Specialized Services
- Growouts: Real-world evaluation of hybridity and varietal purity, essential for quality control post-harvest and pre-replant.
- Crossing Blocks & Test Crosses: Controlled pollination projects designed to support hybrid development and evaluation.
- Generation Advance & Continuous Nursery: Accelerate breeding programs by achieving multiple generations per year.
- Trait Introgression & Event Selection: Rapid incorporation and testing of transgenic or native traits in diverse backgrounds.
- Pod Pick, Hill Plot, and Isolation Projects: Flexible plot formats tailored to breeding goals, trait screening, and seed increase.
- Tissue Sampling, Testing, and Lyophilization: Critical molecular biology services for trait confirmation and marker-assisted selection.
- Fertility Readings: Vital for assessing male sterility or fertility restoration in hybrid systems.
This end-to-end capability enables breeders to transition smoothly from early discovery to large-scale seed increase and trait validation.
Illinois Crop’s Puerto Rico operations are backed by the same rigorous quality and compliance standards that define its mainland services. As part of the National Seed Health System (NSHS), Illinois Crop is accredited to perform phytosanitary inspections that support the issuance of Federal Phytosanitary Certificates. This is particularly valuable for breeders and companies targeting international seed markets, where stringent import regulations and seed health requirements apply.
Additionally, Illinois Crop is authorized to conduct official seed certification activities, ensuring that all certified seed produced or evaluated in Puerto Rico meets the highest standards for varietal purity, identity, and quality.
Illinois Crop Improvement is more than a service provider—it is a collaborative group for breeders, researchers, and technology developers. The Puerto Rico facility works closely with licensees, trait providers, and global seed companies on a variety of custom programs. With the flexibility to accommodate both standard and highly customized projects, Illinois Crop’s Puerto Rico team can seamlessly integrate into your breeding and R&D pipelines.
Puerto Rico services are further enhanced by Illinois Crop’s full suite of support infrastructure in Champaign, Illinois. Services focused on Seed & Grain Quality, Genetic and Trait Testing, as well as Certification and Auditing Expertise you can count on a multi disciplined team ready to offer effective support to you and your breeding program. This integration ensures that data collected and seed produced in Puerto Rico aligns with broader quality assurance, certification, and compliance objectives—creating a seamless experience from winter farm to final product.
We want to be your independent collaborator in winter breeding. With so much at stake in each breeding cycle—new genetics, regulatory approvals, product launches, and customer satisfaction—the value of a trusted, third-party winter farm cannot be overstated. Illinois Crop Improvement’s Puerto Rico operations are uniquely equipped to support your goals with the infrastructure, expertise, and independence that today’s seed industry demands.
Whether you’re pursuing generation advancement, trait introgression, growouts, or seed increase, you can rely on Illinois Crop to deliver high-quality results and actionable data on a timeline that keeps your program moving forward—without seasonal delays.Contact us today at ilcrop@ilcrop.com to learn how our Puerto Rico services can accelerate your breeding program and ensure superior quality seed, year-round.
Learn more by reviewing our Soybean Program presentation:
