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Soft Wheat Quality Laboratory 2015 Update
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SWQL MISSION

SWQL BACKGROUND

Wheat is the world's largest crop used for direct human consumption. Approximately half of the wheat in the U.S. is milled in the eastern region served by the USDA-ARS Soft Wheat Quality Laboratory (SWQL), Wooster, OH. Since the 1930s, the SWQL has conducted end-use quality evaluation of soft wheat breeding lines and scientific research on wheat quality through long-established coordinated research with state land-grant universities and private breeding programs in the eastern U.S., for the purpose of improving the milling and baking quality of soft wheat produced in the region. It is one of the few laboratories in the world that develops methods for testing quality of soft wheat, the major wheat type grown in the eastern U.S.

Today, the SWQL evaluates in excess of 5,000 breeding lines and varieties submitted by 16 public and private breeding programs in 16 eastern states annually for end-use quality potentials for the development of wheat varieties possessing desirable quality. The SWQL also plays a pivotal role in the variety evaluation under the uniform Regional Variety testing programs, the Wheat Quality Council project for testing end-use quality potentials of newly released varieties, and the Overseas Varietal Analysis project for popularly grown wheat varieties for overseas users, in cooperation with the eastern soft wheat breeders, the Wheat Quality Council and U.S. Wheat Associates, respectively.

Since its establishment, the SWQL has enjoyed strong, continuous support from the regional milling and baking industries and in return has made significant contributions to the overall improvement in the quality of soft wheat that is produced in the region. No doubt, the solid cooperation from wheat breeding programs and milling and baking industries has been and will continue to be essential for the prosperity of the SWQL.

The SWQL critically evaluates nearly all the wheat cultivars marketed from Missouri to the Atlantic seaboard. It also develops and publishes new methods, and conducts research in the areas of milling and flour quality. Research findings are shared with breeders, millers and food processors through the annual SWQL Research Review, annual Soft Wheat Quality Council meetings, publications in refereed journals and presentations at international conferences. Our website makes SWQL data, protocols, cultivar descriptions and research news publicly available.

CURRENT SWQL FUNDING & STAFF

Current base funding ($816,023) supports a lead scientist, a post-doctoral research associate, and a scientific support staff composed of six full-time and two part-time members. The SWQL budget has been reduced from $943,096 in FY 2012 to $825,593 in FY 2014, and to $816,023 in FY 2015.

Two additional post-docs joined the SWQL in March and April, 2014. They were paid mainly from grant funds and funds received from the wheat industry. One post-doc left the program upon completion of the project in December, 2014, while the other continues working in the SWQL for a second year. Two visiting scholars, a Fulbright scholar from Pakistan and a wheat breeder/geneticist from the Rural Development Administration (RDA) in Korea, joined the lab in March and September, respectively.

There are four full-time and two part-time technical support staff members carrying out the quality evaluation of breeding lines and varieties. Two full-time research technicians, two post-doctoral research associates and two visiting scholars perform research projects.

The laboratory continues to improve the efficiency and reliability of the quality evaluations of breeding lines and varieties under declining discretionary funds. Renovations to the flour milling facilities and mills are ongoing and will continue as funding permits. The ARS has purchased a single kernel characterization system (SKCS) for the lab for determination of wheat kernel hardness, size and weight. Renovation of the HVAC system in the milling facility has been delayed and is scheduled to start in May of 2015 for better control of humidity and temperature conditions.