2020 oat variety trial results available

Careful management and proper choice of variety can make oats a profitable crop, thanks to their low input requirements and beneficial effects on succeeding crops in a rotation. Oats are grown for various uses such as food-grade milling, cover crop seed, livestock feed (grain, hay or oatlage), straw bedding or as a nurse crop for alfalfa. Because oats are harvested in late July to early August, field management options for the remainder of the season are numerous. Entries were screened for crown rust, barley yellow dwarf virus and septoria leaf blight by agronomist Margaret Smith of Albert Lea Seed House and ISU’s Ken Pecinovsky in late June at the Nashua location only.