Sunbeam Extract Company began operations in 1992 as a plant breeding company specializing in the development of new varieties of soft red winter wheat for production in the Midwest and Canada. The company was founded by Dr. Hal Lafever, Ohio State University emeritus professor of Agronomy, in partnership with several Ohio seed companies. The company has since grown to include variety development of hard red winter wheats, soft white winter wheats, and spelt, as well as developing new types of wheats, oats, barleys, and other millets and grasses for use in floral arrangements.

Even though variety development is a very lengthy process, Sunbeam Extract Co.has, in its relatively short existence, produced numerous popular new soft red winter wheats now in the marketplace. Our effort involving spelt variety development has also enjoyed good success with five new spelt varieties now in production from Oregon to Pennsylvania. We are the only developers of improved winter spelt varieties in the United States and continue to develop and offer for licensing new spelt varieties for interested companies. Our efforts in hard red and soft white wheat variety development began more recently and our most advanced experimental lines are now entering region wide testing

Varieties and experimental lines are now available to bonafide seed production companies for testing and exclusive or non-exclusive licensing. We also offer seed increase services through our close association with Ohio Foundation Seeds and the Ohio Seed Improvement Assoc

Seed of our varieties is available for use in farm production through the several partner seed companies .