The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is reporting that most winter oat varieties performed well in the organisation’s 2021/2022 Recommended List (RL) trials.
The average yield of control varieties in the treated trials stands at 9.84t/ha, 0.71t/ha ahead of the five-year average of 9.13t/ha.
However, there were large differences between trials, ranging from 7.41t/ha to 12.33t/ha.
The average yield of control varieties in the untreated trials stands at 8.77t/ha, 0.62t/ha ahead of the five-year average of 8.15t/ha. Again, there was a large range, from 6.86t/ha to 11.72t/ha.
Grain quality data from the trials will be available soon.
Winter oat yields
Yields are represented as a percentage of the control varieties. In 2022, Dalguise, Mascani and RGT Southwark are the control varieties. The yield average from these varieties is represented as 100%.
In the treated trials, the husked variety, RGT Southwark, remains highest yielding (105%), followed by Dalguise (103%), both of which have outperformed their five-year averages.
Gerald is on 94% and Mascani on 92%, both of which have underperformed their five-year averages.
Mascani remains the market-leading winter oat variety, due to its popularity with the oat millers. The candidate husked variety, Cromwell, sits in the middle of the pack on yield at 96%, but it will be its quality that determines its success in the market.
For the naked varieties, yield isn’t everything, as the market is different. Peloton is the highest yielding in 2022 on 77%, followed by Fusion (71%) and Grafton (69%).
Disease
Untreated winter oat trials were reintroduced last year to help farmers seek lower-fungicide-input varieties.
These trials help show the impact of the disease resistance scores on yields. In these untreated trials, RGT Southwark stands out at 106% of controls, well ahead of Dalguise at 99%, with Gerald on 96% and Mascani on 95%.
The candidate variety Cromwell is on 99% of controls in these trials.
Of the naked varieties, Peleton has performed best in the untreated trials (82%), with Fusion on 74% and Grafton on 71%.
The five-year average is a better measure of variety performance over seasons (2018–2022).
In the treated trials, RGT Southwark is highest yielding (104%), followed by Dalguise (101%), with Gerald on 96% and Mascani on 95%. The candidate variety Cromwell is on 102%.
In the naked varieties, Peloton is again the highest yielding (76%), followed by Fusion (74%) and Grafton (72%).
In the untreated trials, RGT Southwark is again the standout variety at 107% of controls, with Dalguise on 97% and Mascani on 96%. The candidate Cromwell is on 98%.
Of the naked varieties, Peloton does best in the untreated trials at 80%, with Grafton on 71% and Fusion on 70%.