New oat varieties look like delivering unprecedented forage yields to the Queensland and New South Wales grazing industries in the next few years. 

The oat-breeding project involves Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries newly appointed oat breeder Bruce Winter, and former oat breeder and Heritage Seeds research scientist Leonard Song, with funding support from Meat and Livestock Australia and Heritage Seeds.

Dr Song said these new varieties would improve the productivity of forage oats with higher yields and better disease resistance. 

“Forage oats form a stable feed base during winter months when other pastures remain dormant, and farmers rely on oats for livestock finishing during this period,” he said.

Dr Song said compared with oat varieties introduced from overseas, these new varieties were better adapted to local growing conditions.  

“They are resistant to leaf rust, the most serious disease of forage oats in sub-tropical Queensland.  Due to their late maturity and improved grazing characteristics, they can remain productive and palatable for longer in the growing season.

“In the past, the industry tried importing leaf rust resistant oat varieties but their resistance was overcome by new leaf rust strains within only one or two years,” he said.

Dr Song said the DPI&F oat-breeding project was likely to release two or three new commercial varieties within the next few years, each with multiple sources of resistance to current races of leaf rust, yielding up to 20 per cent more forage under optimum conditions, and having other good grazing characteristics.

One such variety could be released as early as next year, he said. The release of new and improved oat varieties could see expansion of the crop and more importantly strengthen farmer confidence in growing forage oats.

As part of the successful oat-breeding program, Volta was released by the DPI&F in August 2003 and marketed by Heritage Seeds.  Volta is the only commercial forage oat variety with multiple sources of resistance to current races of leaf rust.

Dr Song said other key characteristics of these new oat varieties include quick establishment, potential for multiple grazings, high palatability, late maturity and hay-making potential.

“One trial variety could be grazed as early as 60 days after planting.  If released, this variety will give more than six grazings in ideal circumstances, and has softer stems and more leafiness to enhance palatability,” he said.

Dr Song said multiple disease resistance genes to leaf rust was the big breakthrough for the Australian forage oat industry since these varieties could avoid crop losses to the disease, costing an estimated $35 million a year.

Under a new agreement between DPI&F, Heritage Seeds and MLA, Mr Winter would progressively assume responsibility for the oat breeding program, Heritage Seeds would be responsible for seed increase and marketing of new varieties from the program, and MLA would help fund the project, Dr Song said.

About 500,000 hectares of oats are planted annually in Queensland and New South Wales, contributing over $120 million to the red meat, dairy and grain industries.  The crop’s importance to the red meat industry alone has been estimated at $97 million a year.