  While fungicides have worked well, Mid-South farmers need a
source of resistance to ASR “very badly,” says Billy Moore, who
has headed Mississippi's ASR team for several years. “Already,
even without a huge ASR epidemic, a large number of fungicides
are going out. A good, resistant variety would lessen the need
for so many sprayings.”   “We've been chasing ASR resistance
since it came on the scene (in the United States),” says Bill
Rhodes, Schillinger vice president of research, from Puerto
Rico, where he's currently checking lines.  “We've always been
interested in having plenty of diversity in the things we're
working on. That's why we have a lot of material — some of it
sort of exotic — that we've been working with and trying to
incorporate into some of the more adapted varieties. That began
as protein increases or oil-quality traits.”  In 2005, a small
set of lines containing some exotic material was sent to a
University of Georgia nursery for appraisal. Later, Rhodes
received a call from one of the res