2012 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416): Evaluate the milling and baking quality of wheat grain samples of new wheat cultivars submitted to the Soft Wheat Quality Laboratory by research programs in the Eastern U.S. 1b.Approach (from AD-416): Annually, approximately 23 public and private soft wheat breeding programs, crop improvement associations, and wheat marketing associations from the eastern half of the United States will send the SWQL up to 400 micro-sized (200 grams) and 60 macro-sized (400 grams) test lines. Samples for breeding and genetic studies total more than 5,000 annually. Samples will arrive from June through February; one to six months post harvest. Breeders supply known quality check samples, against which test lines are contrasted. Each sample set is part of a controlled breeding experiment designed to achieve a specific research objective within the researcher’s program. Most are selection experiments to identify superior genotypes for cultivar release. 3.Progress Report: This project replaces 3607-43440-007-12S which terminated 6/30/12. Quality data was produced for the following regional nurseries in 2011: the Uniform Southern Winter Wheat Nursery, the Uniform Eastern Winter Wheat Nursery, the Gulf- Atlantic Wheat Nursery, the Mason-Dixon Winter Wheat Nursery, the Uniform Eastern White Wheat Trial, the Northern Uniform Winter Wheat Scab Nursery, and the Southern Uniform Winter Wheat Scab Nursery. All results were posted to the USDA websites at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/News.htm?modecode=36-07-05-00. Uniform Southern and Uniform Eastern Winter Wheat Nurseries were included in reports to the nursery coordinator and those results were publicized at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/docs.htm?docid=2925. The two Fusarium head blight nurseries (Scab) were publicized to the research community through the US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative website at: www.scabusa.org. This project addresses objective 4 of the parent project: Cooperatively Develop and Encourage the Release of Superior Quality Soft Wheat Cultivars.