2005 Annual Report 4d.Progress report. This report serves to document research conducted under a Reimbursable Agreement between the ARS, Genetics and Precision Agriculture Research Unit and Cotton Incorporated. Additional details of research can be found in the report of the parent research project, 6406-21000-010-00D, Germplasm Enhancement and Genetic Improvement of Cotton. This project also includes cooperators at Mississippi State University and North Carolina State University. The first crosses were made as an 11 parent diallel using diverse parents from all areas of the US Cotton Belt. Five cycles of random mating have been completed. Abundant recombination seems to be occurring based upon visual observations and on yield in cycles 0, 1, 2, and 3. Fingerprinting of the 11 parental lines continues with SSR markers and yield trials of cycles 0, 1, 2, 3 are in progress. These random mating populations will provide valuable diversity and new gene recombinations useful to all public and private cotton breeding programs.