2006 Annual Report 4d.Progress report. This report serves to document research conducted under a Reimbursable Agreement between the USDA-ARS Grain Marketing and Production Research Center and the Grain, Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA). Additional details of the research can be found in the report for the parent project 5430-44000-015-00D. The objectives of this study are to identify quantitative and qualitative tests that predict end-use traits and functionality; and develop rapid tests to measure attributes identified above. One hundred hard red spring (HRS) and 100 hard red winter wheat (HRW) samples were selected by GIPSA to represent wheat currently in the US marketing system. GIPSA and ARS then measured about 100 quality attributes such as protein and starch composition, dough characteristics, and baking quality in each of the samples. The quality of HRW and HRS wheat were compared, and published in a paper "Comparison of Quality Characteristics and Breadmaking Functionality of Hard Red Winter and Hard Red Spring Wheat". This paper showed that HRS wheat quality generally exceeds that of HRW wheat, even when protein content is similar. A second paper showed the potential to predict grain, flour, dough, and bake quality using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). That paper title is "Predicting wheat quality characteristics and functionality using near-infrared spectroscopy" and showed that many quality characteristics are well correlated to protein content. When this correlation is removed, then few characteristics can be predicted by NIRS. A third paper that will develop models using multiple quality measurements has been drafted and sent to Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS).