PLANT BREEDING IS PROBABLY THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ACTIVITY IN HUMAN HISTORY INITIATING AGRICULTURE WHEN PEOPLE WENT FROM HUNTER-GATHERERS TO FARMERS CREATING FOOD SURPLUS THAT ALLOWED THE RISE OF MODERN CIVILIZATION. MODERN PLANT BREEDING INVOLVES EVALUATING THE GENETIC MERIT OF LINES BY DISCERNING GENETIC FROM ENVIRONMENT AND NOISE COMPONENTS. THEREFORE, CONTROLLING MICRO (I.E. PLANT-TO-PLANT VARIATIONS DUE TO FIELD HETEROGENEITY) AND MACRO (I.E. THE DIFFERENTIAL RELATIVE PERFORMANCE OF INDIVIDUALS IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS) ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY IS FUNDAMENTAL FOR BREEDING SUCCESS. FURTHERMORE, THE MOST LIMITING FACTOR FOR ACHIEVING HIGHER GENETIC GAINS IN THE NEXT 25 YEARS IS PREDICTED TO BE RESOURCE ALLOCATION WITHIN AND AMONG ENVIRONMENTS FOR PROPER EVALUATION. IF WE CONSIDER THE MORE THAN ONE BILLION OF U.S. DOLLARS OF EXPENSES OF PLANT BREEDING (I.E. COMBINED PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EXPENSES), ANY GAIN IN EFFICIENCY HAS A LARGE ECONOMIC IMPACT IN THE SECTOR. THEREFORE, OPTIMIZING RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND INCREASING PLANT BREEDING EFFICIENCY WOULD HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT IN U.S. AGRICULTURE. THE GOAL OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO PROVIDE PROPER METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO OPTIMIZE RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR PLANT BREEDING AND TO TEST THEM ON A LARGE MULTI-ENVIRONMENT EVALUATION OF BARLEY. WE WILL COMPARE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN STRATEGIES BASED ON BOTH MICRO-ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION (LOCAL CONTROL OF FIELD HETEROGENEITY WITH EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS), AND MACRO-ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION. SECOND, WE WILL OPTIMIZE THE USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION FOR PREDICTING THE PERFORMANCE OF INDIVIDUALS IN NEW ENVIRONMENTS TO TARGET LOCAL ADAPTATION.SEVERAL FIELD EXPERIMENTS WILL BE CONDUCTED INCLUDING A FIELD HETEROGENEITY MAPPING EXPERIMENT IN FOUR LOCATIONS IN THE MIDWEST (MINNESOTA AND WISCONSIN), THE EVALUATION OF MORE THAN 200 LINES IN MORE THAN 60 ENVIRONMENTS, AND ANOTHER LARGE FIELD EXPERIMENT WITH 300 GENOTYPES EVALUATED IN FOUR LOCATIONS IN THE MIDWEST (MINNESOTA AND WISCONSIN). AN ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MORE THAN 60 ENVIRONMENTS WILL BE PERFORMED USING ENVIRONMENTAL DATA SUCH AS PRECIPITATION, TEMPERATURE, SUNLIGHT AND OTHER VARIABLES. A SERIES OF METHODS FOR FIELD EVALUATION WILL BE COMPARED USING STATE OF THE ART TECHNOLOGY SUCH AS GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS WITH GPS TECHNOLOGY, SPATIAL MODELING, SUPER-COMPUTING WITH SIMULATION APPROACHES, AND HARD CORE QUANTITATIVE GENETICS THEORY. BOTH UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS WILL BE TRAINED IN SCIENCE-BASED METHODS FOR AGRICULTURE. ADDITIONALLY, A STRONG DISSEMINATION COMPONENT IS INCORPORATED TO THE PROJECT SO THAT THE RESULTS CAN BE ACCESSED AND DEPLOYED BROADLY. RESULTS WILL BE PUBLISHED IN ACADEMIC JOURNALS BUT ALSO IN OUTREACH MATERIALS AND WILL BE PRESENTED AT ACADEMIC CONFERENCES AND IN FIELD DAYS WITH FARMERS. FINALLY, THE RESULTS WILL BE INCORPORATED INTO COURSES TAUGHT TO GRADUATE STUDENTS, POST-DOCS, PLANT BREEDERS AND RESEARCHERS.THIS PROJECT WILL SUPPORT PUBLIC PLANT BREEDING EFFORTS TO IMPROVE CROP PRODUCTIVITY, EFFICIENCY, QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, AND LOCAL ADAPTATION THROUGH EVALUATING RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION IN BREEDING PROGRAMS AND TESTING IT IN A NATIONWIDE GENOMIC SELECTION BARLEY BREEDING POPULATION THAT WILL IMPROVE BARLEY MALTING QUALITY LOCALLY ADAPTED TO SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTS NATIONALLY. AS A LONG-TERM RESULT FROM THIS PROJECT, WE EXPECT AN INCREASE IN ACRES OF BARLEY PLANTED IN THE MIDWEST. BY IMPROVING RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN BREEDING PROGRAMS IT IMPROVES BOTH PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY AND WE SECURE THE PLACE OF BARLEY IN THE MIDWEST ROTATION PROMOTING CROP ROTATION AND A DIVERSIFIED LANDSCAPE THAT IS BENEFICIAL TO THE WHOLE MIDWEST SOCIETY. THESE METHODS FOR REGIONALLY ADAPTED CROP CULTIVARS WILL THEREFORE CONTRIBUTE TO RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPERITY WHILE ENHANCING REGIONAL AND NATIONAL RESILIENCE AND FOOD SECURITY. THIS PROJECT WILL THEREFORE DIRECTLY BENEFIT BOTH U.S. FARMERS AND THE ENTIRE U.S. SOCIETY IN GENERAL.