MN Oats

Deon Stuthman, Roger Caspers, Richard Halstead, Ruth Dill-Macky, Martin Carson,  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 2004, as well as in 2003, all locations produced good data, primarily due to very favorable weather.  The growing season was well suited to oat production, providing high yields of good quality grain. For all 40 entries of the variety trial, yields in 2004 were highest at Crookston (156 bu/A) and lowest at Waseca (106 bu/A), each value about 25 bu/A higher than in 2003.  Over all locations, the average was 120 bu/A compared to 93 in 2003.

In 2004, ‘Drumlin’ and ‘Morton’ were the highest yielding cultivar across the 6 locations of the variety trials with 132 bu/A  and 128 bu/A, respectively. We have also included the results from 2 off-station sites.  Over the years 2003-2004 for all 6 locations, Morton was the top yielding cultivar. For 2002-2004, at the southern locations, Morton, Drumlin and ‘HiFi’ were in the best yielding group.

Table  11. Relative grain yield of oat varieties in Minnesota in single year (2004) and multiple year comparisons (2002-2004).

	Rosemount			Waseca			Lamberton			Morris			Crookston1			Grand Rapids1			State
Variety	1 yr.	3 yr.		1 yr.	3 yr.		1 yr.	3 yr.		1 yr.	3 yr.		1 yr.	2 yr.		1 yr.	2 yr.		1 yr.	3 yr.
Reeves	103	98		83	92		89	100		51	72		80	88		51	54		76	84
Moraine	87	95		82	93		78	90		125	109		101	100		119	103		100	98
Richard	95	96		96	98		78	94		73	89		88	100		106	109		89	98
Wabasha	94	100		102	107		88	96		81	98		102	103		71	88		90	99
Gem	95	98		95	97		85	96		109	98		87	92		109	103		97	97
Vista	91	100		81	91		75	96		102	109		103	104		123	107		97	101
Sesqui	95	102		87	95		92	108		88	105		99	106		124	104		98	103
Drumlin	97	105		98	104		108	109		129	118		108	111		115	114		110	110
HiFi	100	107		101	108		111	114		101	101		94	103		83	98		98	105
Leonard	87	99		76	94		58	98		74	101		105	101		110	113		87	101
Morton	115	109		118	110		139	114		96	105		88	99		100	100		107	106
Mean (bu/A)	111	86		106	84		107	88		117	96		156	142		125	126		120	100
LSD (0.05)	12.7	8.2		12.6	8.3		17.6	9.7		17.5	8.8		13.3	8.6		21.1	14.6		6.5	4.5

¹ Data from 2003 and 2004 only

Table 12. Relative grain yield of oat varieties in Minnesota in single year (2004) comparisons at two organic on-farm locations.

Variety	Madison	Winona
	----------- % ----------
Reeves	95	63
Moraine	78	149
Richard	100	102
Wabasha	102	85
Gem	120	124
Vista	99	94
Sesqui	104	83
Drumlin	97	119
HiFi	111	96
Leonard	106	76
Morton	99	114
Mean (bu/A)	95	58
LSD (0.05)	23.5	34.4

Table 13.   Agronomic characteristics of oat varieties in Minnesota in multiple year comparisons (2002-2004).

	Days to Heading1	Plant Height	Lodging2	Test Weight	Groat
Variety	--- days ---	- inches -		- lbs/bu -	-- % --
Reeves	63	41	3.2	40.8	72.2
Moraine	65	39	2.3	39.5	72.9
Richard	65	44	2.3	43.6	70.1
Wabasha	66	40	1.9	39.6	73.0
Gem	67	41	2.7	40.5	71.1
Vista	67	42	2.9	42.1	71.5
Sesqui	68	40	2.6	39.8	67.8