Crown rust and smut evaluations are conducted at St. Paul, Minnesota under the direction of Dr. Howard W. Rines and colleagues at the University of Minnesota. Evaluations of oat accessions for beta-glucan, protein, and oil are conducted b y Dr. David M. Peterson and staff at the USDA-ARS Cereal Crops Research Unit, Madison, Wisconsin. These important quality evaluations focus on a diversity of NSGC and other oat germplasm. Beta-glucan and protein data have been obtained for over 5,000 NS GC oat accessions to date. In addition, oat entries grown in the Uniform Midseason Oat Nursery, the Uniform Early Oat Nursery, the Uniform Northwestern States Oat Nursery, and other cultivars or advanced lines grown in various trials at Aberdeen and Teto nia, Idaho since 1988 have been submitted for beta-glucan and protein evaluations. Evaluations of oil content have also been conducted in recent years.

Oat descriptors with data entered in the GRIN system are summarized below. No evaluations have been conducted to date for descriptors such as awn type, panicles per row, groat percent, winterhardiness, Helminthosporium avenae, leaf Septor ia, stem Septoria, powdery mildew, and stem rust.
 
NATIONAL SMALL GRAINS COLLECTIONEVALUATION DATA ON GRIN - OATS
 

Nearly 1,000 oat selections developed by the Coker Pedigreed Seed Company and donated to ARS by the Northrup King Company were first evaluated in nonreplicated single-row plots at Aberdeen in 1991. These and other early generation selecti ons from the Coker Pedigreed Seed Company were widely distributed to oat researchers, especially in the southern United States, by the ARS staff at Aberdeen in the early 1990s. Over 200 selections identified as superior in agronomic performance or for ot her characteristics by Howard Harrison and ARS staff at Aberdeen are currently being grown under irrigation at Aberdeen for seed increase and further evaluation in anticipation of being assigned PI numbers and included in the NSGC later this year.

In related efforts, cooperative funding for the project entitled "Comprehensive Oat Improvement Through National Germplasm Enhancement" is established annually through Specific Cooperative Agreements or direct fund transfers in cooperation with the Oat Crop Germplasm Committee. Annual progress reports for this project are available in the CRIS system.

* The authors wish to acknowledge the important contributions of the NSGGRF staff in this effort, with special thanks to Glenda B. Rutger, Dave E. Burrup, Kay B. Calzada, Charles A. Erickson, Santos Nieto, Kathy E. Burrup, Judy Bradley, a nd Carol S. Truman.