Western Australia
Sepetmber 15, 2014
Department of Agriculture and Food research officer Raj Malik is working on a new oat agronomy project to be featured at field walk to be held at a field walk to be held at Holt Rock on Thursday 18 September.
Oat growers are invited to hear about a new Department of Agriculture and Food oats agronomy research project at a field walk to be held at Holt Rock on Thursday 18 September.
The research project is supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and aims to improve opportunities to grow higher-yielding, better-quality oats in low rainfall areas.
Department research officer Raj Malik said the work represented an expansion of the wide-ranging Tactical Break Crop agronomy project and would help ensure the oat grain and hay industries were provided with the latest variety and agronomy information.
“As part of the project, we will source information from, and collaborate with, a range of established grains research groups, and will complement this with field-based research trials to overcome information gaps,” Dr Malik said.
“This year, the department is conducting trials at a number of locations with the aim of developing agronomic and management packages tailored to low rainfall areas to assist growers to improve oat production and profitability.
“Trials are being conducted at Cunderdin, Merredin and Holt Rock to examine the dual-purpose use of new milling varieties Bannister, Yallara and Williams, and the un-released milling variety WA02Q302-9 in medium and low rainfall areas, as well as the performance of the new lower-rainfall hay variety 04192-2.
“A unique component of the project is the department’s partnership with ConsultAg to provide extension services in the key oat-growing areas of WA.”
The Holt Rock field walk on 18 September and Merredin Research Facility field day on Thursday 25 September provide opportunities for growers to hear about the project from research officers Dr Malik who is based at Katanning, and Georgia Troup and senior research officer Blakely Paynter who are both based at Northam.
The field walk will be held at Brent and Clare Hyde’s property ‘Hy-Yakka’, Holt Rock at 10 am.
More information about the Merredin field day is available on the department website agric.wa.gov.au.
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