Location: Cereal Crops Research
Project Number: 5090-30600-001-002-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2026
End Date: Feb 28, 2027
Objective:
Strengthen the capacity of the cooperators breeding program by improving the methodology and throughput of evaluating oat seed quality.
Approach:
A research technician and/or post-doctoral fellow from cooperator's group will collaborate with ARS scientists in conducting the oat quality analysis. This includes sharing laboratory expertise in the use of Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy for evaluation of various oat quality traits. The development of high throughput phenotyping methods for oat breeders will enable ARS to routinely evaluate quality parameters for oat breeding programs for stakeholders. As a part of this agreement ARS will evaluate and report the moisture, protein, beta-glucan, and oil content for the oat seed samples coming from cooperators. In-field drone measurements of larger scale breeding trials will allow breeders to more accurately measure the response of breeding lines to environmental conditions and associate this with post-harvest quality data. This will result in a better understanding of how to develop varieties that consistently produce high quality grain across environmental conditions and deliver better varieties to farmers and other stakeholders.