Western Australian growers have got behind the State’s first potential dwarf milling oat – Kojonup, with the variety being oversubscribed within three months of its release in 2005.

Department of Agriculture evaluation trials in 2004 and 2005 across the wheatbelt, confirmed Kojonup as a consistent performer across all trials and locations.  Preliminary investigations also show its potential as a good dual purpose grain and hay variety. 

The investigations aimed to understand how management factors such as date of seeding, soil type, seeding rate and nutrition influenced the yield potential and milling quality of the new dwarf oat cultivars, Kojonup, Possum and Mitika.

Details of the field experiments will be discussed at the Department‘s Agribusiness Crop Updates on 15-16 February.

Department oat development officer Kellie Winfield said Kojonup produced grain yields equivalent to current dwarf feed variety Wandering and up to 20 per cent more than the non-dwarf variety Carrolup.

She said Kojonup was currently being evaluated for milling potential and a classification was expected in either 2006 or early 2007

“Of the milling varieties, Carrolup accounted for 28 per cent of the area sown for delivery in 2005 and 19 per cent was sown to Pallinup. Wandering (17 per cent) and Dalyup (9 per cent) were the most common feed varieties,” Ms Winfield said.

 “Currently only non-dwarf varieties such as Mortlock, Carrolup and Pallinup are received into the WA milling grade while dwarf oats such as Dalyup and Wandering can only be received into the feed grade. 

“However dwarf oats are higher yielding, have decreased lodging risk and reduced shedding risk than non-dwarf varieties. 

“The development of dwarf milling oats therefore has the potential to offer growers improved yields and improved agronomy.”

Since the formation of the National Oat Breeding Program in 2003 a number of new South Australian hay and grain varieties have become available to WA growers. Kojonup is the first WA-bred grain oat variety released in seven years, after Wandering in 1999.

“The new South Australian varieties - Possum and Mitika - are dwarf varieties with a milling classification in the eastern states.  The varieties are also being evaluated against non-dwarf milling oats as possible milling varieties for WA,” Ms Winfield said.

The evaluation trials showed Mitika and Possum yielded higher than Carrolup but lower than Wandering and Kojonup. 

Grain yields of Possum were between 5 to 10 per cent higher than Carrolup depending on the yield potential of the site, while Mitika was consistently around 5 per cent higher than Carrolup.  Mitika, however, has improved disease resistance and good feed quality due to low hull lignin.