A BREEDING PROGRAM'S ABILITY TO DEVELOP NEW VARIETIES IS IN PART DEPENDENT ON THE SIZE OF THE PROGRAM. ALL OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL, LARGER PROGRAMS ARE MORE LIKELY TO DISCOVER SUPERIOR LINES. PUBLICPROGRAMS TEND TO BE SMALL PRIMARILY DUE TO LIMITED FUNDS FOR PHENOTYPING WHICH CONSTITUTES THE LARGEST EXPENSE OF MOST PROGRAMS. SMALL PROGRAMS COULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE IF THEY COULD LEVERAGE THE GERMPLASM AND TESTING RESOURCE OF EACH OTHER. THIS WAS NOT POSSIBLE WHEN SELECTION WAS BASED ON PHENOTYPING ALONE. GENOMIC SELECTION REMEDIES THAT ISSUE AS LINES CAN BE GENOTYPED AND THEN A BREEDER CAN PREDICT THE VALUE OF UNPHENOTYPED LINES. IF A CONSORTIUM OF BREEDERS GENOTYPED THEIR LINES WITH A COMMON SET OF MARKERS THEN EACH BREEDER COULD PREDICT THE VALUE WITHIN THEIR REGION OF ALL LINES FROM ALL PROGRAMS, THUS EFFECTIVELY GREATLY INCREASING THE SIZE OF THEIR SELECTION POPULATION. IN ADDITION, THE USE OF GENOMIC SELECTION MAY ALLOW FOR A REDUCTION OF PHENOTYPING BY ELIMINATING LESS EFFECTIVE STAGES OF TESTING AND REPLCING THOSE EXPENSIVE TRIALS WITH LESS EXPENSIVE GENOTYPING, AND BY NOT NEEDING TO TEST ALL LINES IN ALL LOCATION TO PREDICT TRAIT VALUES AT THOSE LOCATIONS. OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO FORM A CONSORTIUM OF BREEDERS BASED ON GENOMIC SELECTION, EXCHANGE OF GERMAPLSM AT EARLY STAGES OF TESTING, AND UTILIZATION OF SPARSE TESTING.