1. Oat Varieties for Western Washington Cascadia Grains 2014 Louisa Winkler

2. WSU Mount Vernon Oat Program Oat variety testing Breeding work End-use development

3. Map of Washington State, by Bouchirron (Wikimedia Commons)

4. Goals for variety testing and development: High yield; lodging resistance; disease resistance Performance in organic and low-input systems Winter-hardiness Milling quality, nutritional value

5. Hulled and Hulless Spring and Winter Old and modern Bringing in germplasm from around the world Researching end-uses including poultry feed (with Wilcox Family Farms), milling (with Grain Millers Inc.) and forage. Egg production at Wilcox Family Farm, Roy, WA Local oatmeal at Camas Country Mills, OR

6. Commercial variety test -50 hulled varieties -Replicated plot trials in 4 locations spanning the region -In-field and postharvest tests on milling industry parameters

7. Hulled oat entries From 9 different breeding programmes across North America and overseas 06-5465FurlongL-5NZA733/01Souris AC LuHiFiLeggettOgleSpurs AC MorganHorsepowerLincolnPinnacleStainless BakerJayML oatProleaf 234Stride BuckskinJimMonidaRobustSummit CayuseJordanNewburgRockfordTack ChapsJuryNZA228/17RodeoUC113 DonKaufmannNZA29/09RonaldUC125 EskerKilldeerNZA292,06SaberViking ExcelKonaNZA293,111ShootingstarWombat

8. Nursery locations TeVelde’s Farm, Whatcom County Bishops Farm, Island County WSU Mount Vernon, Skagit County Kirsop Farms, Thurston County

9. Above: Bishops, 5/14; Below:TeVelde, 6/19Above: Kirsop, 7/26; Below: WSU M.Vernon, 7/3

10. Above: Bishops, 8/6; Below:TeVelde, 8/8Above: Kirsop, 9/9; Below: WSU M.Vernon, 8/27

12. Results from 2014 Yield Lodging Test Weight Heading date Grain quality

13. Results from 2014 Yield Range (plot level): 261lb/a - 9,349 lb/a. Oat bushel weight is 32lb. Data from Bishops, NWREC and Kirsop: Entry Average Yield, lb/a All-site rankCV, % Kaufmann6059112% AC Lu581629% Horsepower5307315% Stride5012710% Proleaf2344978107% Chaps4884138% Tack48221612% Rockford42483417% Lincoln38534518% Cayuse36314928%

14. Results from 2014 Yield Rankings changed at each site. Only AC Lu, Kaufmann and Stride were in the top 15 at all three locations. AC Morgan, Summit, UC 125 and Pinnacle were in the top 15 at both NWREC and Kirsop. High average yield, low CV: Esker, Chaps, Proleaf 234, Stride, AC Lu. Cayuse was consistently near the bottom at each location.

15. Results from 2014 Lodging Lodging was problematic at three out of four locations. Entries with especially high lodging resistance across sites were 06-5465, NZA 733/01, Spurs, UC 125 and Shootingstar – unfortunately none of the highest yielders! Horsepower, Summit and Proleaf 234 emerged as high yielders with reasonable lodging resistance. Entries with low lodging resistance included Kaufmann, Jim and Newburg. Lincoln, Newburg, Jury, Kaufmann, Pinnacle and Stride can become extremely tall (over 61in) and are probably best avoided in areas with high probability of summer rainfall.

16. Results from 2014 Test Weight Range (plot-level): 28lb/bu - 46lb/bu Milling industry minimum standard is 40lb/bu Data from Bishops, NWREC and Kirsop: Entry Average test weight, lb/bu All-site rankC.V. Tack42.912% Spurs42.723% Robust41.764% Horsepower41.774% Kaufmann41.382% Lincoln39.2304% UC12539.1312% Proleaf23438.0413% Shootingstar34.0508%

17. Results from 2014 Test Weight Entries exceeding milling minimum at all three locations were Robust, Spurs and Tack. Many varieties exceeded the minimum at two out of three locations. Some varieties did not reach the minimum at any location, including Shootingstar and Proleaf 234.

18. Results from 2014 Heading date Range: 161 – 184 days to heading There were some really late varieties: L-5, NZA 228/17, Jordan and Shootingstar. Early varieties did not necessarily yield less. They included Tack and Horsepower.

19. Results from 2014 Grain quality

21. Results from 2014 Milling tests are now underway to determine Plumps and thins Kernel content (% hull) Nutritional value (protein, oil, beta glucan)

22. Conclusion: There are always trade-offs. Information about your farm and climate can point to what your biggest risks are and guide variety choice. With the right choice of variety, Western Washington oats should be able to easily surpass 5,000lb/a and meet milling standards for test weight. Please help yourself to the variety trial results papers, or see them online at the WSU Mount Vernon webpage: http://plantbreeding.wsu.edu/varietyTrialsWesternWA.html

23. Thank you for your attention! This work is supported by a fellowship from the Clif Bar Family Foundation’s Seed Matters Initiative and by Wilcox Family Farms. With grateful thanks to host farmers Clark Bishop, Kevin TeVelde and Colin Bradshaw. http://plantbreeding.wsu.edu/varietyTrialsWesternWA.html Louisa.winkler@wsu.edu