The research project entitled "Breeding Oat Cultivars Suitable for Production in Developing Countries" was formally established in 1974 by Dr. H. L. Shands, Emeritus Professor of Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin, with funding provided by a grant from the United States Agency for International Development. The USAID grant provided funds through 1976, and The Quaker Oats Company assumed funding responsibilities for the project after the USAID grant expired. Since 1976, most of this oat improvement work has been centered in southern South America because the Quaker Oats Company has milling operations there. The major thrust of this oat improvement effort has been in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.

Dr. Milton E. McDaniel, Texas A & M University, became actively involved in the project in the mid-1970s, making his first South American trip in 1979. The climate in Texas, a winter oat area, is more representative of many oat growing areas in South America than is the climate in the Midwest U.S. The joint efforts of Drs. McDaniel and Shands in the late 1970's provided populations from which several South American oat cultivars were developed. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, Dr. Marshall A. Brinkman of the University of Wisconsin assumed major responsibilities for direction and coordination of the program. Dr. Shands gradually withdrew from active participation in the program, but continued to contribute valuable counsel. Dr. Brinkman contributed greatly to the increased level of resistance to crown rust in the Quaker Nursery pure lines and segregating populations during the 11-year period 1980 - 1990. These rust resistant lines became valuable breeding stocks in Quaker Nursery populations developed at Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station during the 1980's. Dr. Brinkman left the Wisconsin small grain program and the Quaker-International program in June 1990.

R.A. Forsberg and Ronald D. Duerst became the Wisconsin cooperators in 1990. Since that time, Mr. Duerst has made all of the Wisconsin Quaker Nursery crosses and has handled all Quaker Nursery field, greenhouse, and seed operations at Madison. His participation and help have been invaluable. Although R.A. Forsberg retired from the University of Wisconsin in January 1994, he continued participating in the Quaker South American program through 1997. His small grain position in the Department of Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, initially frozen due to budget restrictions, was filled in January 1996 by Dr. Heidi Kaeppler. Ron Duerst conducted the small grain breeding activities during that interim period.

During the past 24 years, the Quaker project has made significant contributions toward developing oat production for the primary growing areas in South America. In the mid-1970's, Brazil imported most commercial oats from Argentina, but currently most oats utilized in Brazil are produced in Brazil. Argentina continues to produce milling oats, and the Quaker milling oats situation in Argentina has improved significantly in recent years. South Central Chile is an excellent oat production area that is capable of producing commercial oat yields as high as 200 bu/a (7168 kg/ha). El Globo, which has a subsidiary agreement with Quaker in Chile, has increased its oat milling output considerably in recent years.

The release of new oat cultivars has contributed significantly to improved oat production and milling in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. A number of cultivars has been released from the oat program at the University of Passo Fundo (UPF) in Rio Grande do Sul. These cultivars have been a significant improvement over the older, imported cultivars Coronado and Suregrain, which still have desirable agronomic and grain quality attributes, but which are very susceptible to most crown and stem rust races prevalent in Brazil. A number of oat cultivars have also been released from the oat program at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) at Porto Alegre. Several of these UFRGS cultivars have repeatedly produced high yields in trials conducted throughout southern Brazil. The development and release of UPF and UFRGS cultivars have undoubtedly contributed to the substantial increase in oat hectarage grown in southern Brazil during the past 17 years. Most of the UPF and UFRGS cultivars were developed from germplasm entered in the Quaker-South American oat nursery.

The oat programs in Argentina and Chile have not released as many cultivars, in part because oat diseases have been less severe and more stable in these countries. Cultivars often retain popularity for a longer period of time in areas where races of pathogens do not change frequently. Nevertheless, the most recently-released cultivars in Chile (i.e., ‘America’ in 1985 and ‘Urano’ in 1992) and in Argentina (i.e., ‘Millauquén’ INTA in 1987 and ‘Cristal’ INTA in 1990, both from the Bordenave Station; and Bonaerense ‘Payé’ in 1991 from the Barrow Station) are significantly better than older cultivars in one or more traits. Although Barrow selection Bw1385 was named ‘Gringa’, it was subsequently found to be phenotypically and biochemically similar to Payé, which prevented its release as a cultivar.

The principal activities of the Quaker Nursery coordinators (Quaker Team) have centered on developing and distributing a number of pure lines and a series of F₂ or F₃ segregating populations. These pure lines and segregating populations are grown in a number of locations in South and North America each year. Data are collected on the pure lines and segregating populations at each location. Location reports are submitted to the project coordinators who summarize the results in an annual report.

This annual report covers project work conducted in 1997. In past years, the Quaker Team has made a 3-week trip to South America each November to visit a number of the testing locations. At each location, the coordinators view the material, make recommendations to nursery cooperators, and view oat production in the area. In 1997, all nurseries in Argentina and La Estanzuela in Uruguay were visited, but other complete team visits were curtailed because of the Third South American Oat Conference, other unavoidable conflicts, and because the Nursery seed did not arrive in Brazil in time for planting.

Observations made by the coordinators on the trip to South America, along with data submitted by South American cooperators, are used to formulate the list of approximately 100 pure lines included in each year's nursery. In the past, one-third to two-thirds of the pure lines were repeated from the previous year, with the remaining pure lines being new entries that were: 1) collected on the trips to South America, 2) developed at Texas A & M or Wisconsin, or 3) submitted from other oat programs for a specific purpose such as resistance to crown rust or tolerance to the barley yellow dwarf virus. The pure lines were frequently used by the coordinators in Texas and Wisconsin to make crosses to form new segregating populations. Normally there were 180-190 segregating populations formed each year.

A majority of the most recent cultivars in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile have been selected from the segregating populations in the Quaker Nursery. The nursery cooperators select plants from segregating populations that appear to be well adapted to their particular area, advance them through their breeding programs via pedigree selection, and eventually release the best pure line selections as cultivars. One important change that has occurred in the 1990s decade is that South American breeders have learned how to make their own crosses. This is a great advancement because local breeders can make a more informed decision on choice of parents.

During 1997, a number of changes were initiated in the Quaker-South American Program. Some of the changes were made, in part, to recognize and take advantage of the cross-making capacity of the South American breeders. The germplasm activities are now primarily the responsibility of Dr. R.D. Barnett, small grain breeder at the North Florida Experiment Station in Quincy, Fla. Beginning in 1997, Barnett will be packaging and distributing the seed. He will also take advantage of the unique environmental conditions in the greenhouses at his location to make most of the initial "spring x winter" crosses. These F₁ seeds will be immediately sent to Aberdeen, Idaho, for F₁ plant growout under the supervision of Dr. Darrel Wesenberg. The F₂ seed will be returned to Florida, and also shared with South American colleagues and H. Kaeppler and R.D. Duerst (Wisconsin) to enable making, by utilizing locally adapted lines as the final parent, 3-way cross combinations.

This approach, when fully implemented, will result in the F₃ segregating populations in the Quaker-South American Nursery being more adapted and useful to individual breeding programs because 50% of the parentage of the 3-way cross will usually be an advanced line from that location. Similarly, it is envisioned that using advanced lines from North American programs as parents of other 3-way combinations will provide useful segregating populations for those locations as well.

A second change in the program has D.D. Stuthman of the Agronomy and Plant Genetics Department, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, preparing the Annual Report.

A third change is the rapid shifting from almost exclusive reliance on major gene, high level of resistance reaction for crown rust protection to more quantitative, rate-reducing forms of resistance which we expect to be more durable. Recent experience with several new South American varieties with relatively short lives of effective crown rust resistance has prompted this particular modification to the program. Several North American breeders are or will be joining this effort to achieve a more durable crown rust resistance.

More details of these changes can be found later in this report under the heading of "Integrated Oat Research Program for South America. This newly proposed program was approved by Quaker-South American management and by South American oat researchers after conversations following the Third South American Oat Conference in Colonia, Uruguay.