LSPB (LS Plant Breeding Ltd) is the UK-based subsidiary of NPZ (Norddeutsche Pflanzenzucht Hans-Georg Lembke KG), a medium-sized, privately-owned plant breeding company based in Germany. 

In 2022, NPZ celebrates 125 years of successful plant breeding, starting with founder Hans Lembke who took over his parents’ farm on the island of Poel, near to the northern German city of Lubeck in 1897.

At that time, he had already begun his first cultivation work with winter oilseed rape. In the following years, this developed into a plant breeding business where winter rape, turnip rape, red clover, grass, winter wheat, oats and potato were grown. 

Today, winter and spring rape as well as field beans and combining peas are the focal point of variety development. The NPZ Group now employs more than 270 staff members on its three sites in Germany. 

As well as LSPB in the UK, NPZ has subsidiaries and partners across Europe, Australia and Canada. In summary, more than eighty NPZ varieties are grown to a substantial extent in over forty countries around the world.

LSPB, NPZ’s UK subsidiary, are leaders in the spring field bean market, including top varieties such as Lynx and Vertigo, newer varieties including Yukon and Macho, as well as LVC (low vicine/convicine) varieties, such as Victus, that will help to further develop the pulse market with end users.  

The company’s combining pea varieties are also prominent in the official PGRO Descriptive List with Carrington, Orchestra and Akooma each yield leaders of their market sector.

LSPB have a portfolio of competitive winter oilseed rape varieties on the AHDB list, with Respect and Flemming, Clubroot resistant Crome and Croozer, plus HEAR variety Resort – all of which help the UK grower maximise their yield.

The aim of LSPB’s combining excellence is to make a real difference to the UK farming industry through the combination of LSPB’s UK-based breeding programmes and utilising the expertise and cutting-edge technology of NPZ.

LSPB is committed to the overall NPZ vision of always looking towards the future. Climate change, crop rotation, changing options for fertilisation and crop protection as well as further improving protein quality for animal and human use are the current challenges that are being actively faced and met.

The NPZ goal is to establish long-term about 1.2 million ha of each of its core crops on arable land. This will save greenhouse gas emissions, increase yields of subsequent crops, produce native oil and protein, and promote flowering insects as well as soil life. A fitting goal for the next 125 years.

TO READ THE FULL NPZ RELEASE ON THEIR 125 YEARS, WITH FURTHER DETAILS OF THE COMPANY’S HISTORY AND CURRENT BREADTH OF OPERATIONS, VISIT THIS LINK  
https://lspb.eu/about/

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FURTHER INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND ON THE HISTORY PAGE OF THE NPZ WEB SITE
https://npz.de/en/npz/history