OAT Tips and Tricks for 2018 were presented at the Grains Research and Development Corporation’s, Research Updates, Perth, last week by Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) researcher Georgie Troup.
Last year the Oat Agronomy team at DPIRD investigated multiple issues affecting oat production, including how to increase yields in certain varieties.
Ms Troup said, “the oat variety and agronomy update is designed to give advisers, agronomists and growers some tips and tricks on how they can approach 2018 with its data based on the oat agronomy trial program, supported by GRDC.”
According to the update there is a three-horse race between Wandering, Williams and Bannister varieties when it came to oats, although only Bannister and Williams are eligible for OAT1, with Wandering only eligible for OAT2.
“I do anticipate that this will be under review by the GIWA oat council within the next 12 months,” Ms Troup said.
A new variety was released in Spring 2017 by the national oat breeding program.
Kowari is set to replace Mitika, with similar yields, structure and flowering time.
The new variety was found to yield better than Mitika in high-yielding environments, although Kowari doesn’t have the grain yields of Wandering, Williams and Bannister.
Last year GRDC ran a trial for on-farm optimisation which Ms Troup said was something growers could do with wheat at CBH, but not with their oats.
“So in other words we are blending the oats, with the trial testing blending at seeding time or after harvest,” she said.
Some of the questions Ms Troup had to ask were”
p What ratio do I need to blend with Williams?
p How much of the good quality do I need to blend with Williams to actually lift it above the line?, and
p What impact did the blend have on the grain yield and the grain quality?
The idea of Crossman was created, which is a town half way between Williams and Bannister, therefore mixing those two varieties would make Crossman.
Ms Troup said the findings were disappointing and they didn’t lift Williams as much as they thought they would.
“We didn’t get what we expected and blending good with bad didn’t give us average, it gave us below average,” she said.
“There was no significant difference when we blended at seeding time or harvest and Williams was a bit better but it didn’t come out what we thought.”
Ms Troup also tried to blend Williams with Mitika, Carolup and Durack, and as expected Durack was highest in hectolitre weight, but it didn’t matter whether it was mixed seeding or harvest, it still didn’t get the results.
She thought if they mixed Williams with Durack or Mitika for screenings, it would bring it back down.
“It was only the blending with Mitika at seeding that actually bought the screenings below the CBH limit,” she said.
The findings of Ms Troup’s research was that Bannister was the strongest performer eligible for OAT1 and farmers growing Bannister need to have a precautionary approach to disease management.
“If you need to blend, just blend post-harvest,” Ms Troup said.