Regional Notes ACTIVITIES The 1996 Hard Red Winter Wheat Breeders Field Day was held in June at Ft. Collins, CO, hosted by wheat researchers from Colorado State University, Agripro Seeds, Inc., and HybriTech Seed International. The 1997 Breeders Field Day is scheduled for May 14 at Vernon, TX, hosted by researchers from Texas A&M. The 21st Hard Winter Wheat Workers Workshop is scheduled to be held in January, 1998 in Colorado. Specific dates and the location have yet to be announced. PERSONNEL CHANGES There have been many changes in scientists collaborating with the Regional Nursery program, and among members of the Hard Winter Wheat Improvement Committee, over the last 12-18 months. The following is not intended as a comprehensive list, but to document some of the changes that have occurred in program collaborators. Those are included for which we have current knowledge or information. Dr. Stan Cox, USDA-ARS, Research Geneticist at Manhattan, KS, resigned his position in July 1996. Dr. Cox and his family subsequently moved to India where his spouse, Dr. Paula Bramel-Cox, is working with ICRISAT. Stan contributed much to the wheat region during his tenure with ARS and he will be sorely missed. Dr. Gina Brown-Guedira has recently accepted the USDA-ARS Research Geneticist position at Manhattan, KS, which had been vacated by Dr. Stan Cox. Dr. Brown-Guedira will join the ARS Plant Science Research Unit in July, 1997. Dr. Jim Quick began serving as Acting Head' of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Colorado State University in fall, 1996. He will continue to lead the CSU wheat breeding effort while on temporary administrative duty. Dr. Jerry Johnson joined Colorado State University in summer, 1995, as Extension Specialist in crop production and variety testing. He takes over the position vacated by Dr. John Shanahan. Dr. Shanahan was appointed as Coordinator of extension programs for the CSU Agricultural Experiment Station. Dr. Allan Fritz joined the Texas A&M University faculty to develop a wheat molecular genetics program and lead the south Texas wheat breeding effort. Dr. Fritz, formerly in a post-doc position with Texas A&M, will be located in College Station. Dr. Yue Jin joined South Dakota State University as Plant Pathologist with a specialty in wheat diseases. Dr. Jin will be working closely with wheat breeders at SDSU. Dr. Kulvinder Gill joined the faculty of the University of Nebraska in 1996 as a Molecular Cytogeneticist, specializing in wheat cytogenetics. Dr. Gill replaces Dr. Shawn Kaeppler, who resigned to take a position with the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Troy Weeks joined the USDA-ARS Wheat, Sorghum, and Forage Unit at Lincoln, NE in the fall of 1995. Dr. Weeks' work includes research on tranformation systems for both sorghum and wheat. Dr. Weeks was previously with the ARS program at Albany, CA, conducting research on wheat transformation. Dr. Drake Stenger has recently accepted a position as Research Virologist with the USDA-ARS Wheat, Sorghum, and Forage Unit at Lincoln, NE. Dr. Stenger's research will focus on molecular biology and control of WSMV infections in wheat. Dr. Jim Anderson resigned his wheat research position with North Dakota State University to take a position as Research Geneticist with USDA-ARS in Pullman, WA. Dr. Anderson has assumed responsibilities of Dr. Bob Allan, who retired in January, 1996. Winter wheat breeding activities at NDSU have since been discontinued. Dr. Erik Ericksmoen will coordinate winter wheat testing for North Dakota out of the Hettinger Experiment Station. Dr. Don Koeltzow is Center Director for the USDA-ARS Grain Marketing and Production Research Center at Manhattan, KS. Dr. Koeltzow was formerly with the Federal Grain Inspection Service and takes over for Dr. Virgil Smail, who left ARS to join the American Baking Institute at Manhattan, KS. Dr. Pat McCluskey joined the Kansas State University Department of Grain Science as a Cereal Chemist working with the KSU wheat breeding programs. Dr. McCluskey takes over for Dr. Bob Bequette, who had recently retired. Dr. Jerry Bergman has assumed a dual role as Superintendent of the Sidney, MT research center for Montana State University and Superintendent of the Williston, ND research center for North Dakota State University. Winter wheat variety testing and germplasm screening formerly conducted at both Sidney and Williston are now being conducted primarily at Williston, ND. Oklahoma State University has announced the opening of the new Oklahoma Food and Agricultural Products Research and Technology Center. Dr. Lowell Satterly, formerly of North Dakota State University, has joined Oklahoma State University as the Center Director. HybriTech Seed International acquired the Agripro Seeds hybrid wheat program in 1996. Agripro will continue to develop and market pure-line varieties, but will no longer develop hybrid wheats. With the acquisition, there were several changes in personnel in the respective hard winter wheat breeding programs. Dr. Gordon Cisar was named Senior Project Leader for the HybriTech hard winter wheat program, now based in Berthoud, CO. Dr. Cisar was formerly Project Leader for the HybriTech eastern soft wheat breeding program. Drs. Jim Reeder and Blake Cooper, formerly with Agripro, joined the HybriTech breeding program. Dr. Reeder will be involved with hybrid wheat development at the Berthoud, CO, location. Dr. Cooper will lead the Hybritech breeding effort in the Pacific Northwest. Rob Bruns and Dr. John Moffatt remain with Agripro, also based in Berthoud, CO, as Research Director and Hard Wheat Breeder, respectively. Dr. Elmer Heyne, Emeritus Professor, Kansas State University, passed away in February, 1997. Dr. Heyne retired in 1982 after 44 years of service as wheat breeder for KSU. Among his many contributions to wheat improvement in the region, Dr. Heyne released the variety Newton', which was grown on up to 6 million acres in Kansas. Dr. Heyne received numerous professional awards for his achievements in wheat research. He also served as editor for the ASA monograph Wheat and Wheat Improvement' and as editor for the first 18 volumes of the Annual Wheat Newletter. CHANGES IN THE REGIONAL NURSERY PROGRAM There were several changes in the Hard Winter Wheat Regional Nursery program that impacted the 1996 evaluations and, consequently, this report. These changes were proposed by Dr. C.J. Peterson and adopted by the Hard Winter Wheat Improvement Committee in January, 1995. First, the Wheat Worker's Code of Ethics was adopted as formal policy under which germplasm is distributed and evaluated in the Regional Nursery program. Second, private wheat breeding companies are now permitted to receive germplasm entered in the performance nurseries, to grow the regional nurseries, and contribute data to the Regional Report. As such, there were several new test sites added to the 1996 evaluations. Third, the Uniform Winterhardiness Nurseries and Soilborne Mosaic Nursery were discontinued in 1995. These were replaced with the Regional Germplasm Observation Nursery (RGON). The RGON will provide for region-wide testing of germplasm for multiple diseases and insect pests and under various environmental stresses. Results for the first RGON are included in this report. For additional information, see the Proceedings of the 20th Hard Winter Wheat Worker's Workshop. Finally, in light of ongoing efforts in both hard red and hard white wheat development in the region, the word red' was dropped from the name of the Hard Red Winter Wheat Improvement Committee'. The Committee will now be known as the Hard Winter Wheat Improvement Committee'. The title of this report has been modified slightly to acknowledge this change. A web page for the Regional Nursery program is currently under development. The page is not fully operational at this time, but does have nursery lists, preliminary data, and other information posted for viewing or downloading. The internet address is: http://agronomy.unl.edu/region/ NOTE: The response reaction of entries to leaf and stem rust infection has been coded on a 1-9 scale to facilitate generation of this report. This same scale has been used in past reports. The response data can be interpreted as reaction type as follows: 1=VR; 1=R; 3=MR; 4=M; 5=M; 6=M; 7=MS; 8=S; and 9=VS.