2004 Annual Report 4.What were the most significant accomplishments this past year? D. Progress Report. This report serves to document research conducted under a Specific Cooperative Agreement between ARS and the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. Additional details of research can be found in the report for the parent project 3625-21000-046-00D, entitled Breeding High-Quality Corn for Sustainable, Low-Input Farming Systems. Efforts at MFAI involve breeding corn populations derived from different sources, including our own corn breeding program (which have been bred for adaptation to sustainable farming conditions since 1988), the GEM program, the ISU breeding program, very early corn from Guelph, Canada, and accessions from the USDA Plant Introduction Station in Ames. The project involves breeding corn that is adapted to conditions where N is primarily made available to corn through the decomposition of soil organic matter and organic manures, and where the corn will need to competitively suppress weeds because herbicides are not used. Last year in Iowa we helped to organize, advertise and carry out a field day on October 4th on Don Adams and Nancy Bonfils farm in Central Iowa. The field day brought farmers together on the project theme. This field day showed plantings from Linda Pollak's program and also our breeding lines. Furthermore, we had a research conference on Dec. 17th with farmers and seeds people to discuss the theme of the research and to plan cooperative work with farmers. This year in Wisconsin we have about 18.4 acres of corn plots, evaluating populations, crosses, and breeding lines under such conditions. In Wisconsin we have plots at Colfax (near Eau Claire), Elkhorn, and Whitewater, and also in Malta, Illinois. We will have major field days on September 15th near Colfax and on September 24th near Whitewater. We have put out press releases and hope to put in a publicity effort to draw out interested persons. Furthermore, we will actively participate in a conference on the project for farmers and seeds people to be held on Dec. 9th in Eastern Iowa that should draw participants from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois. We expect to continue to give presentations on the work at conference such as the Practical Farmers of Iowa annual conference (January 14th, 2005) and research planning meeting as we did in 2004. We are continuing to breed corn populations and evaluating their performance in crosses with various testers. We are testing our corn varieties and crosses and also those from the breeding programs of Linda Pollak and Kendall Lamkey (ISU corn breeder) and have also included pertinent corn varieties from public breeders Jim Coors (U. W. Madison) and Rich Pratt (OSU). Some of our corn has been derived from the LAMP and GEM programs. We continue an active cooperation with the GEM program. Unique to our program is that we are actively breeding to develop several different kinds of specialty corns, to address the need for diversifying our corn markets for farmers in the Upper Midwest. This includes white and blue corn, and large seeded white corn suitable for hominy, posole, and corn nuts. However, the major emphasis of our program is still on corn that will have enhanced taste and nutritional value, especially of carotenoids and quality protein. We developed methods and carried out taste tests on all of our breeding populations. This involved making small muffins using flour from a composite of ears of each population. The taste of the muffins was scored over several months using a panel of 7 independent scorers with an internal check of a standard variety in each screening. A wide range of taste preference was observed. Agronomic information and taste information were used in deciding which populations to continue to work with. Organic poultry producers are in need of high methionine corn as they are no longer allowed to use synthetic methionine in their rations and methionine is the first limiting amino acid for poultry growth, health, and egg production. The floury-2 gene conveys a higher methionine content to corn grain than other grain quality modifying single genes. Our strategy to address this real need has been to cross floury-2 (fl2) containing germplasm from two complimentary heterotic groups (inbreds Oh43^fl2 and W64a^fl2) with high carotene, hard endosperm corn populations and lines in 2002. These latter populations had been selected before for agronomic characteristics and for their intense orange color (high content of xanthophils). They consisted mostly in populations originally from the USDA LAMP program. The LAMP program also gave us putative information about the heterotic groups of these populations and we crossed them with matching heterotic groups for the fl2 containing corns. The hard endosperm from these parental populations conveys a harder grain consistency in the crosses, so that even though the seed is chalky it may still resist mechanical damage during harvest. This has been the problem with using floury-2 in the past. The resulting hybrids produced seed that broke up in combines and became moldy. The F1 seed from these crosses was grown out in 2003 and self pollinated. The resulting F2 seed was screened in 2004 for segregating seed that was opaque using a light table. Opaque seed indicates the presence of chalky endosperm associated with the fl2 gene, however this seed is still not homozygous for the fl2 trait. In 2004 these populations were grown out and have been self pollinated. The resulting ears will be screened with the light table to detect homozygous seed (all seed from an ear is opaque). This seed will be tested for its amino acid composition by Dr. Paul Scott, USDA, ARS, Ames, IA. Those possessing high contents of methionine and deep orange coloration will be increased in 2005. We intend to increase the homozygous lines of corn and to make larger scale test crosses in 2005 to produce high quality corn hybrids. In 2004, crosses were also made between the different lines from the complimentary heterotic groups. This latter seed will be used for field grow out to test for agronomic traits in 2005 in order to determine optimal combinations. In addition to the protein work, this winter we intend to begin to work out assays and screening procedures for carotenoids together with Linda Pollak. Unfortunately, despite our efforts, to date, we have been unable to find funding for feeding and palatability studies with pigs and poultry. Such studies were intended to involve Dr. Mark Honeyman and Dr. Mark Cook at the Animal Sciences departments of ISU and UW-Madison, respectively. Despite a lack of funds at the present moment, seed from the homozygous lines of corn that possess the floury 2 trait may still be used for feeding trials in 2005/2006 by the private sector. The pet food manufacturer (Friskies) and an egg producer (Egg Innovations) have indicated that they would participate in palatability and feeding tests, and this grain would probably be used to address that possibility and to gain feedback on suitability for specialty production. This year we have been working with Ray Boughton and Jessie Niggemann (seed growers for organic corn near Colfax, WI) and with Adrian Plapp (farmer near Malta, IL) to teach them to breed corn with us on their farms. They are helping us to evaluate promising populations and varietal hybrids in replicated strip trials on their farms. They are also becoming involved in learning some breeding and selection skills.