{"id":213,"date":"2026-04-11T14:24:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/?page_id=213"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:43:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:43:42","slug":"loblolly-pine-breeding","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/loblolly-pine-breeding\/","title":{"rendered":"Loblolly Pine Breeding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n<p>The current breeding strategy incorporates optimum contribution selection (to manage gain\/diversity) and genomic prediction (to speed the breeding cycle). We use topgrafting to induce flowering. Our progeny testing strategy supports both scoring families for deployment (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.treeimprovement.org\/prs\">PRS<\/a>) and re-training genomic prediction models. MateSel is used to develop annual crossing plans considering the current state of the population (which trees have flowers\/pollen and their relatedness with the rest of the population), with mating groups to maintain adaptability (<a href=\"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2026\/04\/Walker-and-Isik-2023-Managing-Cold-Hardiness-in-a-Tree-Breeding-Program-while-Balancing-Gain-and-Diversity.pdf\">flexible breeding zones<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The success of this breeding program is made possible by in-kind contributions from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.treeimprovement.org\/members\">TIP Full Members<\/a> (especially progeny testing in the field, sowing seedlings in the nursery) and the dedication of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.treeimprovement.org\/tip-staff\">TIP staff and students<\/a>. Our primary orchard facility, the Arrowhead Breeding Center, is graciously hosted by the Georgia Forestry Commission and funded by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.treeimprovement.org\/members\">TIP Contributing Members<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I started managing the breeding program in 2015 during the 4th-Cycle mating and testing. In 2019-2025, I helped introduce incremental improvements into the 5th-Cycle breeding strategy. In 2023, I stepped into a leadership role to keep the program&#8217;s strategy world class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2026\/04\/Breeding-in-NBO-at-Arrowhead-Trevor-Walker-6-.-pondering-life-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2026\/04\/Breeding-in-NBO-at-Arrowhead-Trevor-Walker-6-.-pondering-life-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2026\/04\/Breeding-in-NBO-at-Arrowhead-Trevor-Walker-6-.-pondering-life-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2026\/04\/Breeding-in-NBO-at-Arrowhead-Trevor-Walker-6-.-pondering-life-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2026\/04\/Breeding-in-NBO-at-Arrowhead-Trevor-Walker-6-.-pondering-life-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2026\/04\/Breeding-in-NBO-at-Arrowhead-Trevor-Walker-6-.-pondering-life-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Staging strobili for pollination at the Arrowhead Breeding Center in 2023. Photo credit: Steve McKeand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The current breeding strategy incorporates optimum contribution selection (to manage gain\/diversity) and genomic prediction (to speed the breeding cycle). We use topgrafting to induce flowering. Our progeny testing strategy supports both scoring families for deployment (PRS) and re-training genomic prediction models. MateSel is used to develop annual crossing plans considering the current state of the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"pageIntro\":\"The fifth cycle started almost 70 years after the first wild trees were selected.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-213","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/213\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu\/trevorwalker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}