Genetic diversity is an essential component of all wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding programs, and breeders often need to reach beyond the adapted germplasm pool. Increasing yield is a challenging goal, especially in the face of a changing climate, but increased genetic diversity present in synthetic hexaploid wheat may provide some assistance. Over the past 12 years, the Texas A&M AgriLife wheat improvement program has been introgressing traits from synthetic hexaploid wheat into elite winter wheat cultivars to develop synthetic-derived wheat (SDW) lines. We evaluated about 400 primary synthetics, mostly developed by the wide-crossing program of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), for early season biomass production and pest resistance. The most promising primary synthetics were backcrossed to our best conventional hard red winter wheat cultivars to develop SDW to feed into our cultivar development pipeline and for use as elite parents in crossing blocks. Combining the high biomass of primary synthetics with our high grain producing winter wheat cultivars was very effective to increase both forage and grain yield. Stand establishment, early season vigor, biomass at anthesis, kernels per spike, kernel weight, grain yield, and end-use quality were all improved. We will discuss the approach utilized in the development of these SDW lines and trait complementation between SDW and conventional winter wheat.