MN Oats

By Deon Stuthman, Roger Caspers, Richard Halstead, and Jochum Wiersma

Crown rust (Puccinia coronata) infections continue to be the major risk for oat production.  This year, as in the recent past, we divided the rust readings into two columns: one headed with “Amount Infected” and the other with “Reaction Type.” The value in the amount infected column predicts the relative proportion of the initial rust spores that achieve a successful infection.  The reaction type value indicates the size of the pustule or alternatively how much the pustule is restricted by the host reaction.  Either way, a small and/or restricted pustule produces fewer spores for re-infection that begins about 8-10 days after the initial infection. Depending upon the plant growth stage at initial infection, there can be 1 to 3 cycles of re-infection during an oat growing season.  The final amount of rust infection depends upon the number and size of spore-producing pustules, as well as the length of time that they produce spores for the second and subsequent infections. It is these later infections that really cause the damage.

In 2003, all locations produced good data, primarily due to very favorable weather.  The first half of the growing season, until mid-July, was well suited to oat production, providing high yields of good quality grain. For all 40 entries of the variety trial, yields in 2003 were highest at Crookston (135 bu/a) and lowest at Rosemount (86 bu/a). The data are summarized in Tables 6 through 9.

In 2003, ‘Rodeo’ and ‘Drumlin’ were the highest yielding cultivars at 123 bu/a.  ‘HiFi’ and ‘Leonard’ were also in the highest yielding group across the 6 locations of the variety trials.  We have also included the results from four off-station sites.  Over the years of 2001-2003 and for all six locations, Rodeo, ‘Vista’, Drumlin, HiFi, and Leonard were the top yielding varieties. For the four southern locations, Leonard, Rodeo, Vista and Drumlin were in the best yielding group.

Table  6. Relative Grain Yield of Oat Varieties in Minnesota in Multiple Year Comparisons (2001-2003).

Variety	Rosemount	Waseca	Lamberton	Morris	Crookston 1	Grand Rapids 1	State Avg
	-------------------------------% of mean-----------------------------
Reeves	93	99	92	82	87	71	88
Moraine	102	99	92	90	92	91	94
Richard	96	97	98	96	107	114	101
Gem	97	95	100	91	96	96	96
Wabasha	99	97	92	101	100	108	99
Rodeo	102	100	105	114	101	114	106
Vista	105	103	102	110	102	92	103
Sesqui	102	97	104	107	111	92	102
Drumlin	104	105	105	106	110	114	108
HiFi	108	104	100	101	103	113	105
Leonard	107	107	114	108	97	111	107
Belle	96	101	97	94	93	92	96
Loyal	98	100	103	105	94	87	98
Ebeltoft	90	96	95	95	107	106	98
Mean (bu/A)	74	87	85	99	119	105	93
LSD (0.05)	8.7	8.0	8.0	8.1	10.0	15.8	4.4

¹ Data from 2001 and 2003

Table 7. Relative Grain Yield of Oat Varieties in Minnesota in Single Year (2003) Comparisons at Four On-Farm Locations.

Variety	Winona	Stephen	Wells	Winona
	------------------% of mean---------------
Riser	-	-	71	76
Dane	-	-	70	71
Reeves	96	115	66	85
Moraine	128	131	83	94
Richard	136	146	71	76
Wabasha	133	140	62	87
Rodeo	140	156	77	97
Vista	140	136	89	72
Gem	142	129	67	76
Sesqui	160	133	90	85
Morton	129	139	87	83
Leonard	156	143	81	83
HiFi	138	139	-	-
Belle	138	129	78	97
Drumlin	169	151	-	-
Ebeltoft	164	155	-	-
Loyal	149	141	-	-
Youngs	172	153	-	-
AC Assiniboia	148	152	-	-
Mean (bu/A)	143	140	76	83
LSD (0.05)	30.8	17.2	12.0	19.0

Table 8.   Agronomic Characteristics of Oat Varieties in Minnesota in Multiple Year Comparisons (2001-2003).

	Heading	Height	Lodging 1	Test Weight	Groat
Variety	Days	Inches		lbs/bu	%
Reeves	58	37	2.5	40.8	71.6
Moraine	59	36	1.7	39.3	71.9
Richard	60	37	1.8	38.7	69.5
Gem	61	35	2.1	38.0	68.9
Wabasha	61	35	1.7	38.6	72.0
Rodeo	61	35	1.6	37.9	70.1
Vista	62	37	2.4	39.4	71.0
Sesqui	63	34	2.1	39.4	67.6
Drumlin	63	35	2.1	38.3	70.7
HiFi	63	37	1.7	38.7	68.6
Leonard	63	35	2.1	37.2	70.6
Belle	64	35	1.8	39.0	73.8
Loyal	64	39	2.4	38.6	67.2
Ebeltoft	65	33	1.9	38.0	70.0
Mean	62	35	2.0	38.9	70.2

1  1=Erect, 5=Flat.

Table 9. Disease Reactions of Oat Varieties in Minnesota in Single Year (2003) Comparisons.

	---Crown Rust 1------
	Amount	Reaction
Variety	Infected	Type 2	Smut 3	BYDV 4
Reeves	10	MR-MS	MS	6
Moraine	5	R-MR	R	4
Richard	15	MR-MS	R	6
Gem	1	R-MR	MR	4
Wabasha	5	MR-MS	R	6
Rodeo	5	MR	S	2
Vista	1	R-MR	R	6
Sesqui	10	MS	R	4
Drumlin	1	R	MR	3
HiFi	10	S-MS	S	3
Leonard	5	MR-MS	R	2
Belle	1	MR-R	MR	7
Loyal	5	MR-R	MR	6
Ebeltoft	15	MS-MR	MR	3

¹ Data from an inoculated nursery.
²   R=resistant, MR=moderately resistant, MS=moderately susceptible and S=susceptible.
³   Artificially inoculated, R=resistant, MR=moderately resistant, MS=moderately susceptible and S=susceptible.
⁴   1=no symptoms, 9=dead.