Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The joint annual meeting of WERA-97 and NCERA-184 was held in Idaho Falls, ID from June 26-28 at the Red Lion Inn. The WERA-97 and WERA-184 business meetings were held on Tuesday evening, June 26. WERA-97 participants discussed the status of the petition, future meeting sites, and status of the revised wheat disease compendium and list of common names of wheat diseases. Participants decided to meet jointly with Western Wheat Workers in Davis, CA in 2008. WERA-184 participants reviewed the 2006 minutes, discussed the status of their petition, personnel changes, future meeting sites, and elected officers for 2008. Participants decided to meet in South Dakota in 2008. There were a total of 37 participants at the meeting representing 15 U.S. states, Australia and Canada. Of these, 35 are from the public sector and 2 are from the private sector.

The joint general meeting was held Wednesday, June 27, and began with a welcome from Dr. Robert Zemetra, Chair of the Dept. of PSES, University of Idaho, followed by State reports, an update from Marty Draper, CSREES on the IPM-PIPE program and tracking cereal rusts, and short reports on special topics in the afternoon. State reports were presented for Arkansas, California, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington. In addition, reports on small grain diseases in Alberta, Canada and Queensland, Australia, were given by Denis Gaudet and Mark Sutherland, respectively. Reports on special topics in the afternoon included Leaf and Stem Rust by Jim Kolmer, Stripe Rust by Xianming Chen, Fusarium Head Blight by Ruth Dill-Macky, Aster Yellows by Char Hollingsworth, Nematodes by Dick Smiley, Crown Rot by Mark Sutherland, and Microarray Analysis of a Putative Tyrosine Phosphatase by Jill Petrisko. A social and dinner was held at the Red Lion Inn in the evening.

A field tour of USDA-ARS and University of Idaho research programs at the University of Idaho Aberdeen Research and Extension Center was held on Thursday, June 28. Mike Bonman provided and overview of USDA programs including the small grain collection housed in Aberdeen and Juliet Windes described research on Fusarium crown rot and wheat breeding conducted by University of Idaho scientists. Field stops and discussion included Rust Screening by Eric Jackson and Maricelis Acevedo, National Small Grains Collection by Harold Bockelman, Wheat Breeding by Jianli Chen, Extension Variety and Pathology Trials by Juliet Windes, and Cereal Smuts by Blair Goates. The meeting ended with a social and dinner at the home of Juliet Windes.

Revision of the Compendium of Wheat Diseases. A team of five wheat pathologists (most of who belong to WERA-97 or NCERA-184) and one entomologist was assembled in 2005 to coordinate revision of the Compendium of Wheat Diseases published by APS Press. The completed manuscript was submitted in late 2006 to APS Press for review. The edited manuscript was received, revised, and resubmitted prior to the joint WERA-97/NCERA-184 meeting; it has now been accepted for publication.

Revision of the List of Common Names of Wheat Diseases is largely complete and is ready for distribution to the editors prior to submission. This collaborative effort between NCERA-184 and WERA-97 is a significant accomplishment since it has been 18 years since the last edition was published.

WERA-97 participants decided to meet jointly with the Western Wheat Workers at UC Davis in 2008. This joint meeting continues a long tradition of cooperative interaction with the Western Wheat Workers, which is composed largely of breeders and production system scientists. Maintaining communication among small grain scientists in different geographic regions of the country and disciplines is considered critical for cooperative research, as well as among established individuals and those in the early stages of their careers.

Participants considered the joint WERA-97/NCERA-184 meetings in 2006 and 2007 to be a success and discussed opportunities for future joint meetings, perhaps in 2010. The broad representation present at this meeting resulted in discussion of establishing a national committee for small grain diseases to enhance communication among those working in this area.

WERA-97 continues to fulfill the objectives of communicating and coordinating research activities among its members, which is largely composed of public sector scientists but also includes regular participation by members of the private sector. Discussions at this annual meeting help inform its participants of potential new problems, and new approaches to the control of long-established problems.