Number and size of cross progenies from a constant total number of plants manageable in a breeding program

Summary This short paper discusses the optimum number of crosses and size of progenies for a given total population size to minimize the risk of not finding any favourable genotype in the breeding material. It is shown that the number of crosses must generally be as large as possible. In special situations it may be advantageous to include also less promising crosses instead of enlarging the progenies of more promising crosses.