Wintersteiger and Computomics to speed up crop breeding with data integration

WINTERSTEIGER, an Austrian manufacturer of agricultural field trial equipment, is partnering with Germany-based Computomics to develop integrated data solutions for plant breeding programs, the companies said in a joint statement.

The collaboration is intended to reduce the time and cost associated with breeding decisions by combining WINTERSTEIGER’s field trial technologies with Computomics’ artificial intelligence tools. The companies plan to deliver a platform that automates the collection, processing, and analysis of field, genomic, and environmental data.

“As breeding programs grow more complex, the ability to extract relevant insights quickly has become a central requirement in the seed industry,” the companies said. The integrated system will target key stages of the breeding cycle such as trial design, harvesting, and crossing block preparation.

WINTERSTEIGER provides data management software that allows breeders to structure field trial results, phenotype data, and pedigrees. Computomics applies machine learning to genetic and environmental datasets to support decisions on variety advancement and cross selection.

The initiative comes as seed companies and agricultural researchers seek to speed up product development cycles in response to climate variability and rising global food demand. By creating an automated, interoperable platform, the firms aim to help breeders improve decision timelines and resource allocation.

Terms of the partnership were not disclosed.