The primary deliverable is the annual report that summarizes performance and quality data for new high-yield soybean lines with improved seed oil and composition traits. In particular, this project will provide:

1. High-quality, multi-location yield and quality summaries for the soybean researchers in a timely manner, both electronically and in print format. The annual report is provided by the end of January each year. The coordination meeting is held in St. Louis during the annual Soybean Breeders’ Workshop and the USB Composition Workshop in February.
2. Measures of environmental stability for yield and composition traits from wide-area testing.
3. Estimated processed value (EPV) for each entry based on the seed composition and yield.

In addition, the new efforts on verification and standardization of NIR measurements for key seed quality traits will be provided.

4. Provide comparisons of commercial lab wet chemistry results and NIR measurements from at least two major NIR machine platforms and calibrations.
5. Considering results from year 1 for this standardization, develop appropriate plans for year 2 sample collection and analysis to meet this objective.
6. Information and data is published annually which is utilized by seed companies to adopt the lines and varieties that potentially result in new improved commercial varieties for farmers.

Update:
An effort was made to coordinate NIR calibrations among some of the breeders to more effectively make use of this technology and ensure accuracy across institutions. Still, more work will be required to include all public breeders. The final goal will be for all breeders to coordinate their NIR calibrations so that their individual data matches that of the data take by a common lab. Ultimately, there will be less need for a reliance of a common lab to provide all the data from all samples, thereby saving time, money and providing results in a more timely manner. Success in this aim could be valuable to serve as a model for the quest for uniform results across the value chain.
The objectives of the Quality Traits project have been rolled into and combined with the USDA Uniform Trials project for 2017. In this way, a full assessment of prospective varieties will be made from the USDA test for their quality traits and yield and agronomic performance.

The Quality Traits test is a cooperative test (2001-2016) among public soybean breeders and is conducted across numerous states and locations to test and develop soybean varieties that contain improved quallity traits, These traits include increased protein and oil content, high oleic, low linolenic, modified carbohydrate traits of increased sugar and/or low oligosacchrides, modified amino acid content, and low phytate. The annual results for each year can be obtained by contacting Dr. George Graef of the University of Nebraska at ggraef1@unl.ed.The experimental varieties developed under this program ultimately lead to released varieties with improved qualtiy traits that either come through direct release to the market or as private varieties that contain as a source the germplasm developed through by breeders from this project.