In Switzerland, E. Oehler and M. Ingold started research on tritica-le during the 1950s. The main goals at that time were spike fertili-ty improvements and octoploid triticale chromosome number stability. In 1976, after a visit to INRA Clermont Ferrand, A. Fossati decided to shift the triticale breeding programme from octoploid to hexaploid triticale. Many genetic exchanges and collaborations took place with Poland (T. Wolski), the USA (R Metzger, MF Kol-ding), CIMMYT (G. Varughese, W. Pfeiffer) and France (M Ber-nard). For cultivar development in France, a cooperation started with a company called Claeys-Luck (later changed to Orsem and then to DuPont Hybrinova). One of the main goals of this program-me was the improvement of lodging resistance by reducing plant height. Indeed, towards the end of the 1980s, all registered tritica-le cultivars were tall (135-150 cm). Our nursery contained several significantly short lines (<100 cm), likely with the dwarfing gene Rht3. However, these lines, despite highly fertile ears, had a low yield caused by insufficient tillering and a bad grain filling. Since 1987, with the opportunity to use chemical hybridising agents (CHA) for experimental purposes, F1 hybrids were produced, with the idea to combine the productivity of tall genotypes with the ear fertility of the shortest genotypes. Since 1994, other kind of com-binations have been produced.