The meeting was called to order by the chair, Steve Ullrich, at 1:30 p.m. Attending (both members* and visitors) were S. Ullrich*, H. Bockelman*, D. Wesenberg*, D. Mornhinweg*, C. Murphy*, R. Horsley, A. Stoner, and A. Hang.

The minutes of the November 13, 1994 meeting in Seattle, Washington were approved as presented.

Steve Ullrich informed the members that his and Darrell Wesenberg's terms on the Barley Crop Germplasm committee (BCGC) expire in December, 1995. He also reported that Brian Rossnagel has been named as an ex officio member from Canada on the BCGC. Brian reported that the Canadian plant germplasm program would likely be moving its headquarters to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan within the next three years. The cereals program would, however, remain in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Allan Stoner presented information on the National Plant Germplasm System. He indicated that funding for plant germplasm activities would remain approximately the same in FY 96 as it was in FY 95. In September, 1995 ARS purchased land near Parlier, CA to be used as a new germplasm increase site for the NPGS. Allan informed the group that the biennial meeting of the Crop Germplasm Committee Chairs will be held July 15-16, 1996 in Beltsville, MD. A handout was distributed on GRIN activities and information on accessing the database over the Internet using the World Wide Web.

Chuck Murphy reported that ARS had named Dr. Floyd Horn as its new Administrator. He also indicated that the USDA budget for FY 96 has been passed by the Congress and signed by the President. Overall, ARS will experience an approximate 1% reduction in funds in FY 96. There was, however, a congressional add-on of $150,000 for cereal research in Madison, WI. Steve Ullrich reported that a $348,000 CSREES grant for barley genome mapping had been approved.

Harold Bockelman presented a status report on the development of the International Barley Core Collection (IBCC). He distributed a handout that listed 142 cultivars to be included in the Americas portion of the IBCC. Seed of these cultivars has been saved from single plant sections made in Arizona. Additional seed increases will be made during the winter of 1995-96. The Americas collection is still lacking material from Argentina and Chile and the growth habit of many of the South American lines is not known. The IBCC Committee will meet during the VIIth International Barley Genetics Symposium in Saskatoon in 1996 to discuss finalizing the other portions of the IBCC. The BCGC members expressed concern over the IBCC Committee's decision to have all lines included in the IBCC go through single plant selection and thus quite likely be significantly changed. Although modification of land races is of particular concern, since they are not likely to be homogeneous, Darrell Wesenberg stated that other lines would likely be changed markedly by single plant selection as well. Chuck Murphy made a motion which was seconded and passed that "instructed Harold Bockelman to convey to the IBCC Committee the serious concerns of the BCGC over the practice of using seed from single plant selections from all accessions, but especially landraces, for incorporation in the International Barley Core Collection".

Harold Bockelman discussed his initial attempt to develop a national barley core collection. He has identified approximately 2300 accessions which represent about 10% of the H.vulgare in the total National Small Grains Collection (NSGC). The first criteria for choosing accessions was their geographical origin and this was followed by random selection within country of origin. Descriptor data on the 2300 accessions is being collected during Maricopa growouts. Harold indicated that the number of accessions included in the core collection will probably be eventually reduced to approximately 6% of the total collection.

Darrell Wesenberg updated the committee on the status of evaluations of the NSGC barley accessions. Darrell distributed a handout that summarized the evaluation activities during 1994. Evaluations continued for reaction to Russian wheat aphid; barley stripe rust ; Fusarium head blight; spot and net blotch of barley; barley yellow dwarf virus; and barley stripe mosaic virus as well as evaluations for beta-glucan, protein and oil content. Specific Cooperative Agreements or within- ARS fund transfers to support cooperative evaluations and related research for all small grains involve over 20 University and ARS projects in at least 17 states. Wesenberg asked the committee member's opinion on continuation of the Barley Stripe Rust Evaluation Nursery in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The consensus of the group was that it should be continued. Dolores Mornhinweg reported on the status of the Russian wheat aphid resistance research at Stillwater, OK.

Harold Bockelman reported that 170 barley accessions were assigned PI numbers from Jan 1-Oct 19, 1995. Most of the new accessions came to the collection from Sweden, China and France.

Steve Ullrich indicated that the registration of mapping populations would be discussed at the CSSA Germplasm Registration Committee meeting during the CSSA annual meeting. It was the recommendation of the BCGC that mapping populations be registered, but not entered into the NPGS and that the developer be encouraged to maintain the population for 5 years.

Steve Ullrich discussed the request that he had received from Allan Stoner to update the BCGC Report that was prepared in 1988. Ullrich indicated that he had asked various committee members to update specific sections and return these to him so he could distribute them to the entire committee for comment by Dec. 15, 1995. The committee's comments will be returned to the authors by Jan. 15, 1996 and they will return revised drafts to Steve by Feb. 15, 1996. He will then assemble the report and distribute it to the entire BCGC by March 1, 1996 to obtain their approval and signatures.

Richard Horsley reporting for Jerry Franckowaik discussed the disposition of backcross-derived barley stocks. He indicated that there are 400+ such lines and asked whether they should be included in the Barley Genetic Stock Collection (BGSC), the NSGC, or neither. It was the consensus of the Committee that the lines should be assigned BGS numbers. An Hang agreed to work with Jerry Franckowaik on the logistics of doing this.

It was agreed that the next BCGC meeting would be held in July, 1996 in Saskatoon in conjunction with the International Barley Genetics Symposium.

Prepared by Allan Stoner